


The Felicity Smoak Diaries

by inlovewithimpossibility



Series: cerys' quarantine and chill fics [11]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Pride and Prejudice Fusion, Angst, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Family, Fluff, Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:14:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 41,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23707459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inlovewithimpossibility/pseuds/inlovewithimpossibility
Summary: When Felicity Smoak starts a YouTube channel in tandem with her best friend, Caitlin Snow, as primary research for her thesis project, she has no idea what it will grow into. It becomes a diary of a year of her life, documenting family, friends, and her changing relationship with a man called Oliver Queen.a lizzie bennet diaries olicity au
Relationships: Laurel Lance/Tommy Merlyn, Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak, Quentin Lance/Donna Smoak
Series: cerys' quarantine and chill fics [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1667249
Comments: 108
Kudos: 181





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone!  
> A huge thank you to Lettie for putting this idea in my head and to her and Calli for allowing me to bounce ideas off of them.  
> I know I said on Twitter earlier that this would be a two-shot but it ran away from me and got to be a bit long so it's now going to be three chapters! I really hope you all enjoy this fusion of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Olicity, and please let me know if you do by leaving a kudos/comment! They make my day! 
> 
> Stay safe xx

Felicity doesn’t think much of the video diaries when she starts them except for them being an interesting addition to her research for her thesis.

Dr. Wells’ ‘Hypermediation in New Media’ class has had a profound impact on the way in which Felicity has understood her master’s course, and with the need to pick a project for her thesis being more and more urgent, it had made sense for her to launch her own YouTube channel in order to collect primary research.

She’s still not entirely sure _what_ her thesis is going to look like as she films the first few videos, but she does know that she wants to look at how technology companies are utilising the new age of media in new and innovative ways.

Plus, it’s all excellent market research for when she finally starts up her start-up.

The videos don’t start being about anything in particular.

She talks about her parents; her mom who’s obsessed with her and her sisters’ love lives, forever lamenting how painfully single Felicity is, and her stepdad, Quentin, who’s learned to live a nice and quiet life amidst the crazy whilst still remaining calm and supportive of all three of his girls.

She talks about her stepsisters; Sara, the cute, adorable, humps-your-neighbours-leg, never-know-where-she-sleeps puppy that she is, and Laurel, practically perfect in every way, studying to be a lawyer to help the poor but currently stuck in an internship that works her off her feet.

Which ultimately loops Felicity back around to herself. Twenty-two years old, still living at home, what was once her accelerated post-grad course seemingly taking forever, and drowning in student loans.

Felicity can see why she never thought it would be much of a basis for a particularly _popular_ vlog channel.

To start with, Felicity pins all her success on her best friend and partner, Caitlin Snow. The two of them have been best friends since before they were even born, their mothers having been bridge partners who went into labour in the _same_ book club meeting. Felicity and Caitlin have been practically inseparable ever since and Caitlin has taken over most of the work shooting and editing the video diaries.

She’s an utter gem, Felicity has no idea what she would do without her, and she’s sure it’s Caitlin’s mastery that’s causing her subscriber count to grow.

That is until Tommy Merlyn comes to town.

The young and rich medical student sends the whole town in a spin, but no one more than Felicity’s own mother. She immediately starts screaming to them all of how Tommy must be introduced to her three very single daughters so that they can get married and have lots of beautiful and rich children.

Felicity is pretty much done with the whole thing before it even starts. Her mother’s obsession with marrying the three of them off is the thing that causes the most animosity in her and her mother’s relationship. Her mom loves them all a lot and Felicity knows that in her own way, her obsession with their dating lives stems from just wanting them to be safe and happy. But good lord, it is so annoying to have to listen to. She just doesn’t understand how her mother cannot see how many other wonderful things there are about her daughters to be celebrated.

Laurel graduated from law school at the _top_ of her class and is seriously impressing people at her internship, even if they are working her way too hard. Sara, even though Felicity’s not too sure of what she actually spends her days doing, is one of the most loving and happy people she’s ever known and, even though college might be taking her slightly longer than the others, she’s getting through it and doing incredibly well. Felicity herself is finishing her _second_ master’s degree at 22, the age when most people are only just finishing their bachelor’s. 

But no, all her mother can concentrate on is Tommy Merlyn and the apparent tirade of women he’s bringing to the Netherfield mansion he’s renting on the nice side of their very small town.

She’s explaining these frustrations to the camera in her own unique fashion of costume theatre (which may or may not involve her acting like her mother dressed in one of her hats and scarves) when Sara bursts into her room.

“Oh wow, grad school finally broke you, huh?” Her sister questions with a grin, reaching for her phone as if to take pictures but Felicity scrambles to her feet, removing the costume before she gets there.

“What do you want?” Felicity questions, looking at her sister with an unimpressed raised eyebrow.

“You have to be nice to be, I know something you don’t know.” Sara sings in a teasing voice as she plops herself down in front of Felicity’s camera and waves at it with a wink.

“What is it? Sara?” Felicity questions as she moves to sit next to her sister.

“Hmm…” Sara pouts, tapping her finger against her lips as if she’s thinking about withholding the information.

“Oh my god, tell me or get out my room.” Felicity huffs with a roll of her eyes. It’s funny, Sara is two years older than her but has more of the mannerisms of the youngest sibling. Felicity has always supposed it was because she’d had fourteen years of it before Felicity and her mom came into their lives but it is still amusing to see the dynamic.

“Donna paid me ten bucks to drive past the Netherfield mansion on my way back from Amaya’s and Tommy Merlyn only brought back one girl. And it only gets better. Guess what? She’s just his sister!” Sara grins, wiggling her shoulders in excitement and Felicity groans.

“Oh thank god, that should shut Mom up.” Felicity bemoans happily, looking towards the camera before frowning and turning back to Sara. “Wait, so you saw him. Is he actually good looking?”

“I only saw the back of his head. His sister though? _Gorgeous._ There’s some good genes there for sure. Although look at Laurel and I, it’s clear that _sometimes,_ good genes skip a sibling.” Sara preens, flicking her hair behind her shoulder and Felicity rolls her eyes.

“Sara. Time for you to go.” She states blankly, turning to push her off the stool but Sara holds strong.

“I’m not done! There was someone else! Another man…” Sara sings, wiggling her shoulders and Felicity’s brow furrows.

“Like his friend ‘another man’ or his _friend_ ‘another man’?” Felicity asks, looking to the camera with an inquisitive look.

“I don’t know but he was _hot.”_ Sara answers with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Did you catch his name?” Felicity presses, feeling like she’s trying to get water out of a stone.

“Oliver.” Sara states simply with a declarative nod and Felicity pulls a face.

“Oliver? Sounds pompous.”

I think it’s a great name.” Sara nods once more before she jumps up and heads to the door. She stops just before she leaves, turning back to look at Felicity. “Oh, by the way, if you thought the sister thing was going to satisfy Donna, she’s now excited that there’s three eligible rich people for her three single daughters.”

“Of course she is. You know, I can’t believe there was ever a time I was worried about coming out to Mom.” Felicity huffs, remembering how nervous she’d been only for her mother to squeal loudly and hug her tightly. It took about 0.5 seconds for her to ask Felicity if it still meant she was going to give her grandkids but she’s really sweet about it in general.

“Right? It just opened the pool up even wider in her eyes.” Sara answers with a laugh and an affectionate shake of her head.

“Sometimes I envy Laurel and her heterosexuality.” Felicity poses, looking at Caitlin sat behind the camera who is watching the whole exchange with her usual bemused expression. Felicity’s best friend is very used to the Smoak-Lance antics by now.

“I don’t. Boring!” Sara calls, still at the door and Felicity groans, turning to look at her sister.

“We’re going to have to listen to Mom scream about this all week until the Cutter wedding, aren’t we?”

“I may ask Zari if she’s up for a week long sleepover.” Sara answers simply with clenched teeth and Felicity grins.

“That is a good idea. Caitlin?” She asks, looking back to her best friend who merely levels her with an unimpressed look.

“No.”

Felicity deflates with a pout but even that doesn’t seem to budge her. Which is sad, because Felicity’s pouts are _great._

The wedding is… surprisingly successful. Not in the way that the bride and groom got married and there was good food, alcohol, and dancing. That was not surprising at all (although Felicity’s mom might have something to say about it if you asked her about Carrie Cutter getting married before any of her daughters).

What is surprising is Tommy Merlyn.

He spends the _entire night_ dancing with Laurel, he practically has eyes for no one else, and in the brief moments that Felicity spends with him, he is charming and sweet and altogether wonderful. Laurel too is immediately clearly taken and the _only_ downside is that Felicity has to spend her entire night listening to her mother squeal about how it’s _her_ daughter dancing with the new, young, eligible bachelor.

Well, almost the entire night.

Felicity is forced from her spot standing against the wall into the crowd for the bouquet toss and by forced she means literally is shoved into the group by her squealing mother. She has her suspicions that some coercion may have occurred between Donna and Carrie Cutter because the bouquet practically sails into her hands.

And guess who has simultaneous bad luck catching the garter?

Tommy Merlyn’s snobby friend, Oliver Queen.

Queen has spent the _entire_ night shoved up against the back wall of the venue, fake texting, and ignoring everyone around him. Felicity has seen Tommy try to coerce him into being more sociable numerous times but Queen remains resolute in being glued to the point furthest away from all human interaction. The garter toss appears to be an unfortunate moment wherein he left his haven to get a drink from the bar and is forced into *shocker*, actually talking to people.

Namely, Felicity.

“It was the most awkward dance ever.” Felicity recounts days after for the camera in her room. “He was stone cold, no expression, no attempt at even a smile. It was like he was trying to hear the crickets in the next county! I finally asked him if he liked it here in town? ‘Not especially’. And if he enjoys dancing? ‘Not if I can help it’. I’m glad to have rocked his world!”

She intercuts her speech with flashes to her own interpretations of the almost robotic man, dressed in her costume for him which consists of a bow tie and a replica of the ridiculous flat cap he _insisted_ on wearing all night.

To be honest though, the dance isn’t the worst part of it all. Once it is over, and Felicity counts her prayers to say she doesn’t have to participate in the awkward swaying anymore, she and Caitlin head outside to get some air as they laugh about how awkward the dance was.

And there is Queen, talking to Tommy.

“Stop wasting your time with me and go back to continue to dance with who seems to be the only tolerable girl in that room.” Oliver starts to his friend and Felicity turns to Caitlin to pretend vomit, the two of them having to bite their hands to hide their giggles.

“Well what about Felicity? She seems lovely.” Tommy offers, getting Caitlin to knock Felicity’s shoulder with a proud smile.

Felicity is smiling and then Oliver has to go and ruin it by opening his stupid, prideful mouth. “Felicity’s decent enough, but why should I keep dancing with her when no one else does?”

“Decent enough? _Decent enough?_ Vacuums are decent enough. You don’t talk about people like that! I hope it’s not too lonely on the pedestal he appears to have put himself on.” Felicity cries as she finishes recounting the story to the camera with a huff. “I think it’s safe to say that I like him, even less than he likes me. Felicity Smoak. Decent enough.”

Luckily for Felicity, her interactions with Oliver Queen are very limited over the next few weeks. Laurel spends more and more time with Tommy and his sister, Helena, who Felicity actually finds she gets on quite well with.

For the most part, however, Laurel is out and that leaves Felicity alone with Sara.

Sara who Felicity loves very, _very much,_ but is also the biggest partier Felicity has ever known.

And the week in which Sara is practically uncontrollable?

The last week of the college term.

Their town is small but the university actually garners quite the student populace and when their finals are complete for the year, they all descend upon the bars with their fake IDs in tow. It’s mayhem and Sara can _always_ be found right in the middle of it.

Felicity only goes with her to their local bar, Verdant, to keep an eye on her. Sara’s not always totally aware of her actions when drunk and, even though she’s the younger one, it just makes her feel better to know there’s someone she trusts keeping an eye on her sister.

And who can you trust if you can’t trust yourself?

She’s approaching a table by herself, having found one of the only available spaces in the entire bar when a tall, handsome man appears in front of her.

“Don’t sit there.” He tells her with a frown, looking between her and the stall she was aiming for in disgust.

“Why not?” Felicity questions, looking up from her drink into bright blue eyes set in one of the most chiselled faces she has ever seen.

His lips are quipped into a smirk and Felicity watches in amazement as he swings his jacket down from where it’s thrown over his shoulder and lays it on the stall. He then gestures for Felicity to sit down but all she can do is stare at him in bafflement.

“Did you just lay your jacket down? I didn’t think people did that anywhere other than period movies.” She stutters out, immediately regretting her words. She forgets sometimes, that her brain appears to have no filter to her mouth and the best thing to do is to just not think but alas, her brain also doesn’t work like that.

“It’s making a comeback, like mixtapes and bad 80s perms.” Tall, dark, and handsome apparently has no qualms, however, and he extends his hand with a smile even more charming than his smirk. “I’m Adrian Chase.”

“Felicity Smoak.” She answers, shaking his hand. He then gestures to the jacket covered stool again and Felicity slides onto it, trying to force her cheeks to remain a normal shade.

“I feel that I should preface this by telling you that I am not a young college student anymore. I’m visiting my friend who works in one of the dorms.” Adrian starts and Felicity actually relaxes at his words. Whilst she’s not the age of most grad students, she is still older than freshmen and is not particularly looking to make a connection with any barely adults.

“Ah, that would explain the lack of beer stench and actually clean hair.” Felicity comments with a chuckle, feeling a sense of pride rise in her when it garners a laugh from Adrian too. “I’m actually a grad student, I’m just keep an eye on my sister.”

Felicity immediately regrets nodding her head in the direction of Sara when Adrian spins to see her dancing on top of the bar. “Is that her?” He asks with a grin and Felicity winces as he turns back to look at her.

“We’re not biologically related.”

They spend the rest of the _very pleasant night_ talking and chatting until Felicity has to leave to get a very drunk Sara home safely but as she informs Laurel as they’re filming the vlog explaining the events; “Adrian Chase’s number is in my phone and he’s already texted me today.”

She has no doubt that it’s a lasting foundation for a relationship but Adrian is a rare gem in what is literally a cess pool of romantic options and Felicity is excited for the way he makes her smile.

* * *

It’s a few weeks later and whilst Adrian has left town, he and Felicity have kept in touch through texting and video calling. Laurel and Tommy are moving along nicely and Sara is even somehow not causing trouble.

As the semester comes to a close along with the penultimate year of grad school for Felicity, things seem to be looking up and she’s looking forward to what the summer might hold.

Until Felicity’s mother ruins everything with one of her convoluted plans.

Felicity has never been under any delusion that they’re rich. Her parents in debt and all three of her sisters are in their own debt from school but she thinks it might be a new low for her mother to use that debt as an excuse for one of her matchmaking schemes.

She and Quentin have been talking about selling the house for a while but apparently, in order to add the needed value to it, they’re going to have to do some serious remodelling.

Which means construction work.

Which means a house they cannot live in.

Quentin knows someone who can put he and Donna up for the duration of the work and Sara has enough friends that she can couch surf until necessary but that leaves Laurel and Felicity in a bit of a desperate situation.

“I wish you could stay with me but Mom and I don’t exactly have the largest apartment and then you’d be saddled with _my_ mom which…” Caitlin is explaining to her in front of the camera but Felicity grabs her hands, shaking her head.

“It’s fine. Now I’m understanding why Mom always said I needed more friends than just you.” She teases with a smirk and Caitlin relaxes with a chuckle.

“Luckily for me, you didn’t listen.”

“Crisis averted.” Laurel states as she enters the room, smiling at Caitlin as she tucks her phone into the pockets of her skirt.

“What does that mean?” Felicity questions, looking at her older sister with a raised eyebrow as she scoots over on the bench so that she can sit down.

“Tommy says you and I can stay in the guest wing at Netherfield.” Laurel explains with a smile as if it’s the most simple thing in the world but Felicity finds herself focusing in on one detail of Laurel’s plan.

“There’s a guest _wing?”_ She questions audaciously and Laurel levels her with a reprimanding look.

“I can tell him you want to surf Sara’s friends’ couches instead…” She starts in a sing-song voice and Felicity’s eyes widen at the prospect.

“No! Her friends are all nice enough but just… no.” Felicity shakes her head with a wince, her teeth clenching.

“They are a particularly chaotic group.” Caitlin comments with a frown and Felicity notes that it might be the understatement of the century. There’s no telling what trouble Sara and friends find themselves in.

“What is it they call themselves again?” Laurel questions and Felicity sighs.

“The Legends.” She reminds her and Laurel nods.

“So you’ll come to Netherfield?” She asks hopefully and Felicity sighs with a nod.

“Yes, tell Tommy thank you from me.”

“Okay! Yay! This is going to be so much fun!” Laurel grins, jumping happily up from the chair and grinning at both Caitlin and Felicity before she rushes out the room.

“I know that face. That’s your ‘solving a mystery’ face.” Caitlin states immediately and Felicity frowns, turning to face her friend.

“I can’t believe her. This is a new low, even for Mom.”

Caitlin sighs with a roll of her eyes. “They’re trying to sell the house, Felicity. This has nothing to do with her hopes for Tommy and Laurel.”

“Oh so the fact that Quentin knows someone who can put he and Mom up but none of the rest of us is just a coincidence?” The blonde questions, shaking her head and pointing her finger at Caitlin.

“Maybe they just don’t want to impeach on their hospitality?” Caitlin offers in explanation, moving Felicity’s wagging finger away from her face.

“You are too nice to my mother.” Felicity huffs with a scowl and Caitlin rolls her eyes.

“And you are too harsh on her. I think you should be concentrating less on that and more on packing for your time at Netherfield.”

“Oh god, you know who else is at Netherfield?” Felicity realises with a groan.

“Helena?” Caitlin poses and Felicity sighs.

“No, well yes, but also…” She reaches across to the box where she keeps her props for the videos and pulls out the flat cap she uses for Oliver. Flopping it onto her head, she straightens her posture and does her best imitation of the rich heir. “I dislike smiling, it contorts the face.”

“He did _not_ say that!” Caitlin huffs with an amused shake of her head as she pulls the cap off of Felicity’s head.

“Okay maybe he didn’t but he’s still a pompous ass.”

“You’re also too harsh on Oliver Queen.” Caitlin notes, waggling _her_ finger in Felicity’s face which she bats away.

“Hey, he started this. ‘Decent enough’, I am so much than decent enough.” Felicity states indignantly. She really doesn’t know what it is about Oliver Queen but he really gets underneath her skin.

“I still think he likes you.” Caitlin grins and Felicity groans.

“Please.”

“You didn’t see him that night at Verdant! He was totally ignoring Helena and staring at you.” Her best friend insists, tugging on her arm but Felicity just rolls her eyes.

“Because he enjoys belittling me. He was just waiting for more ammo.” She explains with a long groan.

“You always bite back. He probably thinks it’s flirting.”

“Please, I would get more back from flirting with a brick wall.” Felicity poses with a frown but Caitlin appears decidedly undeterred.

“There’s a thin line between love and hate.”

“And I am decidedly on the hate side when it comes to Oliver Queen.” She reminds her friend but Caitlin just shrugs her shoulders.

“I think _his_ sentiments might be altogether different.”

“Whatever, I apparently need to pack. God, I hope this work doesn’t take too long, I don’t know how long I can stand being stuck in a house with Oliver Queen.”

* * *

“Ugh, I am so done being stuck in a house with Oliver Queen!”

She and Laurel have been at Netherfield for almost two weeks now and it seems like it is taking forever for this remodelling to be done. Felicity is growing more and more annoyed by the moment, whereas Laurel and Tommy just seem to get more and more besotted with one another.

“He hasn’t been that bad.” Laurel comments from her spot next to Felicity on the bed and Felicity huffs.

“You are spending all your time lip locking with Tommy, I am the one who has to endure him.” She states indignantly, gaining herself an unimpressed look from her sister.

“Okay, firstly that’s not fair _or_ true.” Laurel starts patiently, quietly reminding her that Felicity’s annoyance shouldn’t be directed at Laurel.

“Fine, you’re not spending all your time lip locking with Tommy. Just a lot of it.” She finds herself grinning and avoiding the gentle swing of a light smack Laurel sends her way.

“You know sometimes I wonder whether it would be worth it to go back 10 years and sabotage Dad and Donna getting together. I think I’d have a lot less headaches with only one sister.” Laurel states to the camera before turning to look at Felicity at the end, narrowing her eyes in mock anger.

“Please, you love me.” Felicity grins, turning to face Laurel too and keeping their faces close together.

“Unfortunately I do.” Laurel sighs, stretching to kiss Felicity’s forehead before she face the camera. “And you antagonise Oliver.”

“I do not!” Felicity insists, resisting the urge to flail her arms around like a petulant child.

“He’s trying to be nice and you keep ignoring his attempts.” Her sister elaborates and Felicity groans as she throws her head back.

“I do not!”

“Yes, you do. Let’s take last night for example.” Laurel starts and Felicity briefly notes that she’s gotten so much more comfortably in front of the camera since this has all begun. She’s not sure she likes it if it’s going to be used against her in this way. “Oliver and Felicity were stood by the speakers and…”

Felicity groans as Laurel reaches for her favourite polka-dot blouse that has become the synonymous ‘Felicity’ costume for the vlogs. “Do we really have to do this?”

“Put the shirt on.” Laurel insists and Felicity grumbles but does as Laurel places the ‘Oliver’ hat on her head. 

“How do you like these speakers? You’re into tech, right? I put them in myself.” Laurel starts in her best impression of the billionaire and Felicity huffs.

“They’re okay, the sound quality is kind of mediocre.” She repeats what she said, looking over at Laurel who is throwing herself into the performance with gusto.

“Oh right. I personally like a more vintage sound, like that you achieve with a record player.” Her sister mocks before staring at Felicity with longing expectancy.

“I didn’t say anything, why are you looking at me like that?” She questions as she breaks character and Laurel shrugs her shoulders.

“Because that’s how he looked at you.”

“Please just go back to the script.” Felicity huffs with a wince and Laurel smirks, lingering for a moment before she adjusts her posture and goes back to playing ‘Oliver’.

“So how about this song? I hear it’s popular, it’s catchy and seems good for dancing.” She pauses again, looking over at Felicity when she doesn’t say anything. “I said it’s catchy and it seems good for dancing.”

When Felicity still doesn’t respond, she takes off the hat and turns to stare at the camera with a knowing look.

“That was _not_ him asking me to dance.” Felicity insists, bringing up what started this argument in the first place.

“What else was it then?” Laurel questions with a raised eyebrow and Felicity groans.

“An attempt for him to get me to admit that I like popular music so that he can later criticise me for it.” She answers simply, nodding her head, but Laurel just rolls her eyes.

“He wouldn’t do that.” Her sister states but Felicity just stares at her.

“When did you become Oliver Queen’s biggest fan?” She questions, feeling betrayal stir within her. Laurel knows how much Felicity dislikes Oliver and she’s always been in Felicity court before.

“He’s just not the bad person you always make him out to be.” Laurel insists as she turns back to the camera.

“You’re starting to sound like Caitlin.” Felicity rolls her eyes and Laurel shrugs her shoulders with a happy smile.

“Caitlin is a very smart woman.”

“Laurel, my brother was looking for… Oh!”

Helena Bertinelli entering the room puts an immediate end to Felicity and Laurel’s argument as the former jumps up to attempt to hide her camera from the rich socialite.

Felicity doesn’t really know Tommy’s half-sister all too well, apart from the fact that she’s very close with her brother and Oliver, which is enough for her to know that finding out about her video blog is a _very_ bad idea.

“Helena, I…” She starts but trails off, any thought of an explanation leaving her brain.

“You’re filming.” The beautiful brunette frowns, looking between the two sisters and the camera with a frown.

“Um yes.”

“I’m going to go. Did you say Tommy’s looking for me?” Laurel asks, jumping up from the end of the bed and moving towards the door. Felicity glares at her, mouthing ‘traitor’ but Laurel just shrugs her shoulders with an apologetic grimace.

“He’s out by the pool.” Helena instructs to Laurel, watching her go before she turns back to Felicity. “This is for your video blog?”

The blonde’s eyes immediately widen in fear at thought that Helena already knows what her vlog is. “You know about that?” She questions shakily but Helena merely gracefully descends to the bed and preens slightly in the viewfinder of the camera.

“’I’m Felicity Smoak, and this is my life!’” She states in a bad impression of Felicity, merely sending the younger blonde into far more of a panic.

“You’ve seen them?” She practically screeches, settling down next to Helena with wide eyes.

“A few of them.”

“Oh my goodness, Helena, I am so sorry. I can totally stop right away and we can take them down. They’re really not that big of a deal, more of an experiment more than anything else and…”

“Relax. At first I thought they were childish, but you have a way with the camera, Fliss.” Helena smirks, interrupting Felicity’s rambling with a smile and a hand held up as if signalling traffic. Felicity frowns, both at her seeming acceptance and the nickname.

She decides not to question the former, seeing as she doesn’t want to reverse that any time soon, but the latter…

“Oh um, nobody really calls me that.” She states with a wince, really not a fan of the usual abbreviation of her name and especially not in the way it sounds coming from Helena’s mouth.

“It can be our special thing then!” The woman states enthusiastically with another somehow perfect swing of her long, dark hair and Felicity freezes with wide eyes.

“Right.”

* * *

Felicity’s not entirely sure how she feels about Helena.

Her videos are generally kind towards her, knowing the rich socialite watches them now has made her wary of being too critical of her on video, but she sort of feels like she’s being coerced in some way.

She’s so grateful to Helena and her brother for putting them up in their time of need. They’ve certainly outstayed their welcome at Netherfield but it seems the work at their house is taking far longer than any of them expected.

Helena, however, is the only buffer Felicity has between her and Oliver Queen, and she’s not exactly very good at it. She doesn’t know whether Helena is just far better at ignoring Oliver’s annoying qualities than Felicity is, or whether her higher social class means that she’s just far less willing to show it in public but she seems to have a talent at extracting some of Oliver’s most irritating quirks out of him.

“Were you talking before I came downstairs?” Felicity questions of the socialite once they’re sat in front of the camera. They’re talking about the events of the afternoon wherein Laurel and Tommy were off being all vomit-inducingly coupley, leaving Felicity, Helena, and Oliver to entertain each other.

“No, he was just working in the lounge. Not speaking.” Helena states aloofly and Felicity frowns.

“He’s so rude! He only started talking when Helena asked after his sister, not even when I came into the room and said hello!” Felicity groans, her hands moving quickly along with her mouth as she grows more and more irate at the situation.

“And what was that thing about an ‘accomplished woman’?” Helena prompts with distaste in her mouth and Felicity shudders.

“Oh my goodness, yes!” She calls as she remembers, reaching for the ‘Oliver’ cap and straightening her posture before she puts on the right voice. “A woman can only considered herself accomplished if she has a basic grasp of all the basic academic studies, exercises both her brain and form, and understands the necessities of maintaining polite decorum.”

“What does that even mean?” Helena bemoans to the camera as Felicity finishes and Felicity huffs loudly.

“Honestly the fact that _anyone_ has a list of what makes an ‘accomplished woman’ in the 21st century is just… UGH. He annoys me so much. It’s like he observes my movements throughout the day and collates them into a perfectly tailored argument just to piss me off.” She groans, rolling her eyes.

“What do you mean?” Helena questions with a frown and Felicity waves her off with a long sigh.

“He saw me coming out of the gym earlier and then I ran into him in the library as well. ‘Exercises both her brain and mind’. Please.” She mutters and if she weren’t so caught up in her own anger, Felicity may have noticed the way Helena’s eyebrows furrow in confusion as she registers her words. She also may have noticed the look of pain on her face that morphs to anger before she schools her expression just in time for when Felicity turns her attention back to her.

* * *

Luckily for Felicity and unfortunately for Laurel, the construction work on the house finally ends. The lack of apparent changes to the structure only fuels Felicity’s theory that their temporary eviction was all part of her mother’s convoluted plan but even that doesn’t stem the joy that she gets from finally being more than a mansion’s wing away from Oliver Queen.

“Guess where I am? Home! With my own bed, in my own room, with my own Caitlin!” Felicity grins to the camera, wrapping her arms tightly around her best friend with a grin from where she’s sat next to her.

“Oh, I missed you so much!” Caitlin giggles, turning to squeeze Felicity back just as tightly as they sway from side to side.

“I missed you too! I am SO happy to be home and away from Oliver ‘brooding’ Queen.” Felicity shudders as they pull apart, sending Caitlin a look of disgust.

“Your videos with Helena were certainly… interesting.” Her best friend starts but Felicity just launches into her own thoughts.

“Can you believe how arrogant he was? Ugh, if I don’t see him again until the end of the summer, it’ll be too soon.” She throws her hands out, speaking to the camera and Caitlin shakes her head with an amused sigh.

“That wasn’t what I was referring to.”

“And Laurel is back too, though I’m surprised Mom let her in the door seeing as her ring finger is still tragically bare.” Felicity states, purposefully ignoring Caitlin and what she’s trying to imply as she tugs her sister into the shot and lifts her bare hand up to the camera as evidence.

“Shh, you. It’s nice to be home with Dad and Donna and Sara. Even though I do miss Tommy already.” Laurel states diplomatically, pulling her hand away from Felicity’s and smiling sweetly at the camera.

“Aww.” Felicity and Caitlin coo in unison, their heads pressed together.

“Shut up.” Laurel huffs affectionately at them.

They all jump as the door to Felicity’s room slams open and they turn to see Sara stood there, bouncing on her toes in excitement. “But you know who you all missed the most?”

“Yes Sara, we all missed you.” Felicity chuckles, wincing as her sister throws herself across the room and pulls them all slightly violently into a tight hug. Honestly, sometimes Sara really doesn’t know her own strength.

“Group hug!”

“Did you actually run out of friends’ couches to couch surf on?” Caitlin questions as they pull apart and Felicity chuckles as Sara solves the issue of there not being enough space on the bench for them all by plopping herself in Felicity’s lap.

“I did but then I just looped back around to Ray. He’s far too nice to throw me out.” Sara states with a shrug of her shoulders and Felicity chuckles.

“I still don’t understand how you guys are friends.” She comments. Her sister and the nerdy boy who is already a few years into his own start-up and doing extremely well for himself aren’t exactly two people you’d expect to be compatible as friends.

“There’s just some things that bond you for life.” Sara states with a shrug and Felicity and Caitlin share a baffled look.

“Okay, come on Sara, let’s leave Felicity and Caitlin to finish up.” Laurel frowns as she tugs Sara up from Felicity’s lap and leads her out the room. Felicity sends her sister a thankful smile before she turns back to her friend.

“Oh, you know who’s back in town?” Caitlin comments once the room is free of Felicity’s sister.

“Who?” Felicity questions, wondering how on earth she’s so out of touch with everything that’s been going on despite being in the same small town. It’s like the Netherfield mansion was a vacuum away from time and space.

And there’s no worse person to be stuck in a vacuum with than Oliver Queen.

“Barry Allen.”

Felicity frowns as the name registers. “Barry Allen as in Barry we went to school with Barry Allen?”

“Yup. Apparently the Wests have made the move to Vancouver permanent and asked him to come back to clear out the house.” Caitlin explains with a shrug and a look to the camera as Felicity’s brow furrows.

“Did he and Iris West actually…?”

“Felicity.” Caitlin stops her before she can finish her sentence and Felicity huffs, shrugging her shoulders.

“What? I’m just saying. It’s kind of weird.”

“Anyway, I ran into him at the grocery store. He’s doing some particularly revolutionary work actually and they’re expanding into web video.” Caitlin relays and Felicity frowns at the thought.

“They are?”

“Yup. He works at STAR Labs but they’re looking into a more transmedia approach to create more transparency about what they do there. He’s leading the project.” Caitlin states with a small smile and Felicity hums. 

“He is? Wow. Who knew dorky Barry Allen would grow up into successful businessman?” Felicity laughs, thinking of the weird kid on the playground who used to antagonise everyone by claiming he could out run them all.

“I don’t know whether he’s quite a successful businessman, but he’s certainly done well for himself. They’ve just secured investment for the project.” Caitlin explains and that makes Felicity frown once more.

“And now’s the time to come back home to empty his adoptive family’s home?” She questions, finding it odd that he’d take such a break from work at the start of such a large project.

“I don’t know. You can talk to him about it at dinner.” Caitlin shrugs, her voice nonchalant despite her words making alarm bells ring in Felicity’s mind.

“Pardon?”

“Didn’t your mom tell you? She invited him over.” Caitlin frowns, looking at Felicity with a small wince and Felicity’s jaw practically drops to the floor.

“She what?”

* * *

The next week is possibly what Felicity might describe as her own personal hell.

Barry Allen was nice enough at school. He was smart and did his work quietly and just tried to avoid the school bullies like the rest of them.

But Barry Allen grown up?

He appears to be on a whole other level.

Felicity has no idea what has happened to him in the four short years since they last saw each other, but he certainly seems to have had his ego bolstered in one way or another seeing as he now seems to think that he is the world’s leading expert on video blogging.

…and he’s seen Felicity’s vlogs.

He has extensive thoughts on them. That he likes to tell her about for what feels like hours on end without letting her get a word in edgeways.

That’s all bad enough, but couple that with Felicity’s mother inviting Barry round practically every day for dinner and being entirely unsubtle in her attempts to matchmake.

Yup, personal hell.

It’s been almost a week of it and Felicity is lamenting alone in her room to the camera when her door bursts open.

“Felicity!” Barry Allen grins as he enters and Felicity winces.

“Oh good lord.” She grimaces under her breath, sliding along the bench as he pushes his way in.

“Oh, don’t worry, I asked your mother before I came up.” He states before he settles himself on the bench and Felicity frowns.

“Because that’s all you need to enter my bedroom.” Felicity answers with a confused frown as she looks back at the door Barry closed behind him with trepidation.

“I wanted to talk to you in private.” He tells her and Felicity grimaces, turning to gesture to the camera.

“I’m recording a video. If you can’t say it to the internet then maybe you shouldn’t say it at all.” She tries, hoping that whatever he’s planning isn’t something he’s been coerced into by her mother.

“Your efforts to impress me have not gone unnoticed.” He starts and Felicity immediately freezes as she frowns.

“My… what?”

“Felicity Smoak, would you do me the honour of sharing the most important part of life and becoming my new business partner?” Barry asks, clearly having no intent of beating around the bush but Felicity freezes.

“I… what? You’re offering me a job?” She questions in bafflement, his question having completely blown her off.

She had no idea there was even a position available and why on earth is Barry offering her a job when she hasn’t even finished school yet? And what on earth has given him any indication that she wants to go and work for him when it seems all he does is lord over how wonderful his investor ‘Mrs. Queen’ is and his plan seems to be making lab safety videos for YouTube?

Not exactly the job of a lifetime.

“Yes. Let me just explain to you why I wanted to offer you this in the first place…”

Felicity doesn’t subject her viewers to the extensive length of Barry Allen’s explanation. He bumbles his way through it, as he is want to do most things, and doesn’t let her interrupt at any point even though all she wants to tell him is a resounding no.

He goes on about ‘Mrs Queen’ and her extensive knowledge on the subject and all Felicity wants to do is tear her hair out and put as much distance between herself and Barry Allen as humanly possible.

“Barry. I really don’t think you’re understanding me.” She finally manages to say and Barry frowns, pulling a large envelope out of the briefcase he came in with.

“I know that sometimes employees wish to negotiate. I can lay out how extensive the benefits may be…” He starts but Felicity really has heard enough of his voice for one day.

“No! Barry Allen, the answer is no. I do not wish to accept the job.” She states as plainly as she can, watching as his face turns from blissful ignorance, to confusion, to something more sinister.

“Felicity, I hope you realise that you’re making a huge mistake. You are charming and lovely but this is an extremely lucrative offer and I think you should seriously reconsider. I highly doubt anyone will offer you an position like this even once you are qualified and…”

“Barry! The answer is no. I do not want to be your business partner. Now please leave before you insult me anymore.” She states, gesturing to where the door is and Barry’s eyebrows furrow as he looks at her.

“Insult you? I…”

“Please, just leave.” She states, watching him stand dejectedly and walk out before she looks back to the camera with a totally baffled expression.

* * *

If she thought that Barry’s offer was baffling, however, nothing prepares her for the shock news that comes from Caitlin in the next few days.

“You’re doing what?” Felicity questions as they sit in front of the camera as they have so many times before. Caitlin is staring at her with a desperate expression and Felicity can feel her heart breaking before they’ve even really begun.

“I’m taking the job with Barry at STAR Labs.” Caitlin states once more and Felicity shakes her head resolutely.

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am.” Caitlin sighs, looking over to the camera with a clearly uncomfortable look. Felicity feels bad momentarily that she’s insisting on filming it but she just thought that maybe putting her best friend in front of the camera might make her see sense.

It doesn’t appear to be working.

“How can you take the job?” Felicity questions, truly not being able to work out why Caitlin would even want this job in the first place.

“Because it’s a job.” Caitlin states as if it’s the plainest thing in the world and Felicity just feels her confusion grow. She doesn’t even feel as if she recognises the version of Caitlin in front of her and she’s her best friend.

“But you haven’t finished school yet!” Felicity insists, reminding her that they _both_ still have a year of grad school to go and she knows that Caitlin’s also always wanted to do a PhD.

“I spoke to Dr. Wells. He said I could call it a year in industry and gain my credits that way. Plus, this lessens my debt _and_ makes me money.” Caitlin lays out logically and Felicity frowns, flailing as she realises that her explanation actually makes sense.

“But you’d have to move.” She grasps at the other vein of the argument and if she’s being honest, the one that hurts the most.

“Yes. Star Labs is in Central City.” Caitlin states plainly and Felicity frowns, moving to wrap her arms around a clearly still uncomfortable Caitlin.

“You’d be away from me. We haven’t been away from each other for more than a month since we were born!” Felicity frowns and the thought of it makes her heart clench. She hasn’t done _anything_ where she hasn’t had Caitlin by her side, what’s she supposed to do with her suddenly half a country away?

“We’re not kids anymore, Felicity. I have to do what’s right for me. We were never going to be at each other’s sides forever.” Caitlin states with a long sigh, levelling Felicity with a sad look and the pain in her eyes is just far too much for Felicity to handle.

“You’re selling out! He wants you on board to make dumb lab safety videos.” She changes vein once more, unable to listen to the pain of them being separated anymore.

“I don’t have the privilege of refusing him.” Caitlin shakes her head and _those_ words certainly give Felicity pause.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“My mom is in debt, I am in debt.” Caitlin tells her plainly and Felicity shakes her head.

“So are my parents and me.”

“It’s not the same, Felicity. Your mom and Quentin, they have the house. My mom? There is no house to sell. I need a job and money coming in.” Caitlin insists, gesturing to the room around them and Felicity frowns.

It’s just Caitlin and her mom, it has been ever since her dad died. Felicity never thought much about them packing up the house and moving into a smaller apartment seeing as she’d only been ten when it happening but even though she knows logically that Caitlin is right, her heart is in charge right now. Not her head. 

“What happened to Doctor Caitlin Snow?” Felicity questions, reminding her friend of what she thought was always her aspiration.

“She may still be coming. But for now, this is what I need to do and I’m grateful for the opportunity.”

“I can’t believe you’re selling out. You’ll have no time to work on your own stuff.”

“Like I do now? I spend all my free time on _your_ stuff.” Caitlin bites, gesturing to the camera before them and Felicity freezes, the tears immediately pooling in her eyes.

These diaries, this vlog, it’s always been _theirs,_ not just Felicity’s and she thought Caitlin knew that. If she doesn’t… How awful of a friend must she have been over the past few months?

“I… I…”

“Will you please let me go?” Caitlin questions and Felicity drops her arms from around her in shock. Caitlin has _never_ used that angry tone with her before and Felicity feels her heart shatter as her best friend walks towards the door and away from her forever. She looks back at Felicity with a long sigh before she leaves the room and Felicity barely has time to turn off the camera before a gut-wrenching sob forces its way through her body and she falls to the floor.

* * *

Felicity remains in her room for most of the next week.

The thought of facing the world without Caitlin, the thought of there being a world where she and Caitlin are no longer best friends? She hates it and staying inside seems like a far better plan.

Plus there’s the fact that Felicity’s mother is clearly unimpressed with Felicity’s refusal of the job offer from Barry and doesn’t seen to be afraid to let Felicity know that. Of course, her bemoans are less about the job itself and more about the new pool of eligible bachelors and bachelorettes that could be awaiting Felicity in Central City.

Yes, staying in her room is a far better idea.

She’s just explaining that to her camera when her bedroom bursts open and Sara appears in her room.

“Guess who’s back in town?” She questions with a coy grin and Felicity turns to look at her with a frown.

“Who?”

“Adrian Chase.” Sara states simply, signalling for Felicity to budge over on the bench which she does.

“How do you know that?” Felicity questions her sister, confused as to how she would have any information about Felicity’s friend.

“He texted you.” Sara states simply, as if that doesn’t raise a million other questions.

“And how do you know that?”

“You’re not the only one who can do tech stuff.” Sara grins with a preening twist of her shoulders and Felicity frowns in alarm.

“You hacked my phone?” She questions indignantly and Sara rolls her eyes with a sigh.

“Your laptop which is connected to your phone. I needed to get your Netflix password. I just happened to see the text.” The older sister explains with a huff but luckily for her, Felicity is already reaching for her phone.

“Oh he did text me.” She confirms with a grin, smiling down at the text from her handsome… _something_ which does indeed confirm his presence back in town.

“Right? So will you stop being _such_ a bummer and come to Verdant with me? _Please?”_ Sara begs, tugging on the sleeve of Felicity’s sweater with a pout.

“I’m not being a bummer.” Felicity insists, although she knows that the collection of mugs by her bed and the sweats she’s been wearing all week might state otherwise.

“You are being kind of a bummer.” Laurel’s voice chimes in and Felicity turns to see her other sister stood in the doorway with a smirk on her face.

“Laurel!” Felicity frowns, looking at her with a disproving pout.

“I think Verdant is a great idea! I’ll call Tommy and see if he and Helena can meet us there!” Laurel grins with a nod, turning and heading to her own room with a flounce.

“Ugh that means Oliver.” Felicity realises with a grimace. The _last_ person she wants to see right now is Oliver.

“But Adrian will be there! You need to get some action. It’ll help you feel better.” Sara grins and Felicity’s frown turns to a laugh as Sara’s shoulder gently nudges into hers in tandem with her eyebrows wiggling.

“I am not hooking up with Adrian.” Felicity counters as she levels her sister with a look.

“I’m just saying, couldn’t blame you if you did. That man is one hot…”

“Okay, thank you, Sara! Guess we’re going to Verdant?” Felicity interrupts quickly but Sara is undeterred as she looks back at the camera with a grin and throws her arms in the air.

“Yay!”

* * *

The next day, Felicity may not have had much sleep but she’s far too worked up to change that.

“It’s not that weird.” Laurel bemoans as Felicity sits her down in front of the camera.

“It’s weird. Something happened between them! That eye contact had some _serious_ tension, and then Oliver just _left._ I’ve got to know what happened.” Felicity insists looking between the camera and her sister with a begging look.

“Don’t go snooping, Felicity. I know what those techy fingers are capable of.” Laurel frowns, reaching for Felicity’s hands and gesturing to her fingers as if to make a point.

The two of them are discussing the very odd circumstances that occurred last night at Verdant. Adrian had been getting them drinks when Oliver arrived and when he got back to the table, the two of them shared a very long and tense look before Oliver made a very awkward apology and just _left._

“As if I would ever use my technical talents to… Okay, I totally would.” Felicity sighs, extracting her hand back from Laurel’s grasp with a sigh. “But I won’t this time! Adrian is on his way over and if the opportunity arises, I will just ask him.”

“You’re just going to ask him about something potentially traumatic?” Laurel questions and the look on her face tells Felicity how much of a good idea she considers her plan to be.

“Not like that! If he doesn’t want to talk about it, I will not push.” Felicity states declaratively and Laurel raises a dubious eyebrow.

“And then you’ll resort to more technical methods?”

“I plead the fifth.” Felicity responds as she lifts her hand to her heart. Laurel rolls her eyes, standing as she makes her way to exit the room.

“Leave it alone, Felicity.” She calls before she opens the door and slips out.

“Laurel can stop with her preaching. This also isn’t anything to do with me missing Caitlin, Laurel, before you start on that. This is just a mystery left to be solved and if there’s one thing that bugs Felicity Smoak, it’s a mystery!” Felicity tells the camera, frowning as she thinks of how she might be able to drag it out of Adrian before a voice in the doorway makes her jump.

“Oh really? Well then, I hope Felicity Smoak finds many more mysteries about me. I’d like some more of her attention.”

“Adrian!” Felicity grins as she turns to see him and he chuckles, dropping to the bench and pressing a kiss to her cheek in greeting.

“Hey, peach.” He states in his usual greeting and Felicity smiles, thinking briefly about how good he looks in her room.

Oddly, he’s surprisingly forthcoming about what went on between him and Oliver when Felicity asks. He doesn’t want to use any real names for liabilities sake so Felicity’s viewers get the story of ‘the Arrow’, ‘Prometheus’ and the latter’s want to study in the ‘League of Assassins’ (Felicity really doesn’t understand the names but she rolls with it seeing as it gets Adrian to tell her the story).

It turns out that Adrian’s father had worked for Oliver’s until he died suddenly, leaving Adrian fatherless. Oliver’s father had favoured him and helped to raise him himself, essentially making Oliver and Adrian brothers. He promised to fund Adrian’s education at an Ivy League but he died before Adrian came to a point in his life when he was ready. When he asked Oliver for the money, he refused, denying Adrian the inheritance he had been promised from Oliver’s father despite there being much of it left for Oliver himself and his younger sister.

Adrian also explains how Oliver is estranged from his mother due to believing her spending ‘frivolous’ and confirms that she’s the same Mrs. Queen who Barry Allen so greatly values as his investor. Investing in, somewhat dubiously thought out but potentially very lucrative, business plans doesn’t seem like frivolous spending to Felicity but Adrian claims that Oliver is very protective over the family wealth, which Felicity can certainly see in what she knows of him.

She’s grateful to learn that Adrian’s hatred of Oliver isn’t deterring him from attending Tommy’s birthday party with her at the weekend. She wants to have fun, despite the fact that she’s sure it’s probably a recipe for disaster seeing as her parents are also involved, and she knows there’s the biggest possibility of that if Adrian comes with her.

He leaves with the promise that he’ll see her there and Felicity rages as she considers how she’s ever going to look Oliver Queen in the face again after what she’s just learnt.

* * *

Felicity is lurking by the wall of the party when Laurel appears with a drink for her about halfway through the party.

It’s in full swing and it all seems to be going well so far apart from the fact that Adrian is a no show. He promised he’d come and he’s not generally one to be late. He’s not answering his phone and Felicity is honestly getting a little worried but she doesn’t want to come on too strong.

“Where’s Adrian?” Laurel questions, looking around, but Felicity merely sighs with a shrug.

“I don’t know. He said he’d be here by now.” She laments, taking a long swing of the drink and being grateful to feel the sting of the alcohol as it traces her throat.

“I’m sorry.” Laurel frowns and Felicity smiles shaking her head.

“You don’t have to be sorry.” She comments before a shrill, familiar voice pierces her ears and she turns to see a blonde figure introducing herself to all of Tommy’s distinguished college friends. “Oh god, is that Mom?”

“Yup. She’s introducing herself as the host’s future mother-in-law.” Laurel states nervously, her teeth clenched and Felicity takes a deep breath.

“Oh, good lord.”

“I told Dad, he’s going to sort her out.” Laurel reassures her and Felicity calms slightly, watching her her step-father indeed appears behind his wife to reel her in.

“Bless Quentin.” Felicity comments with a chuckle and they share an affectionate look.

“LET’S DO SHOTS!”

“Oh lord, that’s Sara.” Laurel winces and they turn to see her stood by the open bar, a small crowd gathered around her as she dances rather provocatively to the loud music.

“Where’s Tommy?” Felicity questions, trying to distract herself from the car crash happening around her.

“Entertaining, there’s lots of his family and friends here.” Laurel states diplomatically but Felicity’s brow furrows.

“Still, I thought you said you wanted to spend time with him tonight.” She reminds her sister but Laurel just waves her off.

“He’s hosting. It’s no big deal.”

“Laurel!” Helena calls from across the room before Felicity can insist otherwise and Laurel smiles.

“That’s my cue.” She grins at Felicity before she heads over to where the socialite is stood with a group of other women.

Helena waves at Felicity before she turns back to the group and Felicity manages one back before she sighs, leaning against the wall herself.

It’s a good enough party. There’s plenty of alcohol and food and the house is so large that it doesn’t feel cramped despite the hundreds of people here.

She just wishes Adrian would appear soon.

“Felicity.”

Felicity jumps at the sound of a voice right next to her ear and she turns to see Oliver Queen staring down at her intensely. Her anger immediately flares as she remembers the new information she’s received in the last few days but she straightens her shoulders, wanting to appear the bigger person. “Oh, Oliver.”

“How’re you enjoying the party?” He questions quickly, looking intensely into her eyes and Felicity frowns with a shrug.

“It’s fine I guess.” She comments and takes another long swing of her drink as an awkward silence manifests around then.

“Would you like to dance?”

Oliver’s question is so abrupt and it cuts through the silence so sharply that Felicity is baffled and she finds herself saying, “Oh… I… sure?”

She immediately regrets it as he waits for her to place down her glass and leads her into the main area where people are dancing. The music, of course, immediately shifts to a slow song and Oliver reaches for her hand to hold her in a relaxed ballroom hold. 

_Because of course he does._

He stares at her very intensely and Felicity almost wants to look away. It's a habit of his, she's noticed, his eyes will lock on her from across the room and not leave her frame. It confuses and unnerves her, but she also doesn't really know what to do about it. He's just staring and he's never actually looking at her inappropriately. 

“Thank you for agreeing to dance.” He states after a few moments of awkward, silent swaying and Felicity frowns. The alcohol may have gone to her head slightly but she certainly doesn’t regret not beating around the bush and addressing what’s on her mind.

“I have to say, I think it was rather rude how you acted with Adrian the other night.” She states, referencing the incident at Verdant and Oliver’s eyebrow furrows.

“Chase? His feelings do not concern me.” He states with a scoff, enraging Felicity even more. How can he so apathetic when he practically ruined Adrian’s life?

“Are you at least going to be civil when he gets here tonight?” Felicity questions, looking up at Oliver incredulously.

“Oh, Adrian Chase will not be showing his strikingly handsome face here tonight.” He merely scoffs, shaking his head, and Felicity’s eyebrows furrow.

“Yes, he will. He promised me he would.” She explains, her voice far softer than she’s like. It forces Oliver’s expression to soften slightly but he speaks very plainly and with no remorse when he answers.

“Felicity, he will not. I made sure of it. He’ll seriously regret it if he does.”

“And that is how Oliver Queen made a great guy stand me up.” Felicity concludes once she and Sara are done re-enacting the scene for the camera the next day.

“Has he called you yet?” Sara asks from next to her and Felicity frowns.

“Oliver?” She questions in bafflement and Sara pulls a face of disgust.

“No, ew. Adrian.” She implores and Felicity frowns. She actually hasn’t heard from his still and she knows that it’s not like they’re exclusive but seeing as he promised to come to the party…

“Oh no, he hasn’t called. He probably just… um… he totally should’ve called, right?” She winces, looking at Sara despondently.

“Definitely.” Sara confirms before her harsh expression softens and she places a comforting hand on Felicity’s shoulder. “I’m sure he will.”

“I don’t know. I still can’t believe Oliver basically forced a great guy to stand me up. I understand Adrian’s side of their disagreement but Oliver has no reason to be such a dick.” Felicity bemoans and Sara sighs, sliding her hand up to tug her into a hug.

“Ugh, I’m sorry, babe. Guys suck.”

Sara cuddles her some more and then leaves her alone to finish up the video but before she can, she interrupted by Laurel arriving home.

“Hey Felicity.” Her sister calls as she enters the room, smiling at the sight of the camera.

“Hi. How was work?” Felicity asks, sliding to let Laurel sit down and she does with a long sigh.

“It was okay. I’m exhausted.” She bemoans, running a hand over her face and Felicity frowns

“Are you okay?” She’s seen Laurel tired from work a lot but there’s something else behind her eyes now that’s not just exhaustion.

It’s confusion.

“I don’t know. I went to see Tommy on my way home from work but he wasn’t there.” Laurel explains with a frown and Felicity pouts in confusion.

“Oh. Were Helena and Oliver?” She questions and Laurel shakes her head.

“Nope. There was no one. It was weird, almost like the house had been cleared.” She comments with a confused shake of her head and Felicity frowns too.

“That’s odd…”

“Oh, Tommy just tweeted.” Laurel comments when her phone sounds off.

“You have each other on Twitter notifications? That’s adorable.” Felicity grins to the camera but when she turns back, Laurel is staring at her phone in what Felicity knows to be disbelief. “Laurel?”

“I…” Her sister shakes her head, handing her the phone with a deep frown on her face.

“ _Small towns are great but back to the big city. Gotham here I come.”_ Felicity reads slowly with a frown of her own. Anger mixing with her confusion as she realises what’s happened. “What? Did he tell you he was going?”

“No, he… he didn’t say anything.” Laurel answers, clearly confused and upset and Felicity bites her lip, sighing heavily before she stands up and switches off the camera.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Smoak-Lance family head their separate ways, Felicity meets Oliver somewhere she never expected to, and is shocked by an admission of his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone. Thank you so much for all support and love on the first chapter, I'm so happy to hear that everyone enjoyed it so much and that it got a few people to watch The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (which I really recommend, it's all on YouTube). I really hope you like the next installment and please let me know if you do by leaving a kudos/comment! 
> 
> Stay safe and at home if you can xx

Felicity has never seen Laurel so despondent.

She doesn’t leave her room for two whole days and when she does, she looks like a sad wilted flower. Felicity tries to do everything she can to cheer her up but it all just ends in Laurel being sadder than before.

Their mother is not much better. Since she found out why Laurel’s been so upset, she’s barely left the couch. Felicity has had to invent several emergencies to go answer on her phone just to get away from the sound of her wailing. It doesn’t help that she’s still annoyed at Felicity for turning down Barry Allen’s job offer so it’s practically double the wailing.

Felicity is practically camping out in her room at this point, waiting for something to happen to calm her mother down.

And then Laurel gets a job offer in Gotham.

It’s a weird coincidence but Felicity is genuinely happy for her. It pays a better wage and she can stay with Quentin’s cousin so she won’t be paying rent. It’s a fantastic opportunity and exactly what Laurel needs right now.

Felicity’s just not quite ready to say goodbye.

“I’m moving to Gotham. Not London.” Laurel chuckles as they’re sat in front of the camera, looking between Felicity and the lens amusedly.

“But you see, I’m been thinking about how Tommy and all the others left town.” Felicity comments, her newest mystery niggling at her brain. If she’s honest, she knows it’s also about not wanting to say goodbye to her sister, but she won’t admit that, not when she and Caitlin still haven’t spoken.

“Felicity. I was clearly wrong about the nature of mine and Tommy’s relationship. I just need to move forward.” Laurel states with a shake of her head but Felicity makes a noise of protest, holding up her hand.

“No. You’re wrong. You weren’t wrong. Tommy loves you. He’s far too genuine a person to have been faking that.” She explains and Laurel sighs, shaking her head.

“So you think Oliver is at fault here? Helena?” She questions dryly, clearing thinking Felicity’s antics are silly, but to be honest, those two are Felicity’s primary suspects.

“It wouldn’t be the first time Oliver Queen has controlled his friends’ lives.” Felicity states bitterly, remembering Adrian’s story.

“Felicity. People do not construct convoluted plans like that.” Laurel tells her decisively but that merely makes Felicity laugh.

“Please. You’ve met my mother, right?” She follows up with an amused grin, gaining her a reprimanding look from her sister and a small shove to her shoulder.

“I’m moving on. You should too.” Laurel states but Felicity’s attention is distracted when her phone sounds off. “What’s that?”

“Adrian texted.” Felicity tells her quickly, opening up the message.

“He did?”

“Yup. _Sorry about the other night. Had to leave town suddenly. I’ll be back in town in a few weeks. See you soon, peach.”_ She reads aloud, frowning.

“Oh Felicity, I’m so sorry.” Laurel sighs, reaching to wrap an arm around Felicity’s shoulder but she just shakes her head, leaving her phone face down on the bed.

“I… it’s fine. C’mon. I’ll help you pack.” She tells Laurel with a fake smile that she knows her sister will see straight through but is also too nice to question when it’s clear she doesn’t want to talk about. Felicity feels her stomach sink as she reaches to turn off the camera and follows Laurel through to her room to help her get ready to move away.

* * *

Laurel leaves for Gotham with lots of hugs and tears and a final parting message from Donna to try and ‘find that nice Tommy Merlyn again’. Felicity rolls her eyes but wraps an arm around her mother when she notices her crying.

It’s a few days later and they’re all trying to get used to being a person short. They have their routines and it’s weird when they change. Laurel isn’t as loud as Sara and Felicity but her missing presence is certainly felt when they sit down to dinner or when Quentin notes how they don’t need to buy tea every few days to feed Laurel’s addiction.

Fortunately for Felicity, Sara is just the same as always.

“Are you sad? I brought chocolate in case you’re sad.” She comments as she enters Felicity’s room whilst she’s filming.

“Why would I be sad?” Felicity questions as she turns to look at her sister, though she immediately makes grabby hands at the chocolate.

“Adrian’s Twitter? He’s talking about partying in Metropolis.” Sara explains as she slides onto the bench next to Felicity. Her sister pulls up the social media page on her phone and hands it to Felicity who scrolls through it with a mere curiosity.

“And?” Felicity asks with a frown, feeling completely indifferent about it. It’s odd, she never thought she’d be able to be the kind to have such a casual relationship, but she feels totally fine even at Adrian’s direct admission of partying with Metropolis college girls.

“Aren’t you heartbroken?” Sara questions with a confused frown and Felicity snorts out a chuckle.

“Heartbroken? No, Sara. Adrian and I, we were never exclusive. We were just dating.” She explains with a small shrug. She’s not sure she can totally explain it herself but she’s certainly not heartbroken.

“You were?” Sara’s brow furrows deeper at the admission and Felicity knows that Sara too never thought her capable of such a casual relationship. That’s far more Sara’s thing, Felicity’s a bit too much of a romantic on paper.

Maybe it’s that she could tell Adrian’s gentlemanly behaviour was all superficial, that he was clearly the type for casual relationships, or maybe it’s that she was far more interested in what he could tell her about Oliver Queen than actually being with him.

Wait, what?

“Yup.” Felicity shrugs, brushing off her _very strange_ thoughts. She smiles at Sara, opening the bar of chocolate and popping a square into her mouth with a grin. “But thank you for the chocolate.”

“Here if you need me.” Sara smiles, kissing Felicity’s cheek before she gives a wave to the camera and heads back to her own room.

“You’re the best.” She calls and just as the door shuts behind her, Felicity is surprised to see her phone light up with the contact she’s been wanting to call all week.

“Caitlin?” Felicity asks hopefully as she answers the phone, glancing up at the camera awkwardly as she wonders whether she should turn it off. She knows that one of Caitlin’s main grievances was that Felicity had become far too concentrated on the vlog and she felt like she was airing all their dirty laundry on the internet.

Caitlin, however, speaks before Felicity can come to a conclusion.

“I heard about Laurel and Tommy.” Her friend states and it’s such a simple sentence, but Felicity feels her shoulders sink with the weight of it.

This is why she loves Caitlin, their bond goes so much deeper than any petty argument. And Caitlin doesn’t just love Felicity, she loves Laurel and Sara too, and Donna and Quentin in their own strange ways. They’re _family_ and family supersedes an argument.

By acknowledging she knows what’s going on, Caitlin is expressing that she wants to maintain those familial bonds and Felicity is so grateful for that. The past few weeks without her bestie have been _awful_ and the thought of an entire lifetime of it is so much worse.

Felicity is just glad that Caitlin is the bigger person and picked up the phone to call. She considered it herself when everything happened with Laurel but she didn’t want to seem like she was just using Caitlin to vent at.

“Oh, you did?” She answers with a sigh, lifting her knees to her chest as she curls in on herself. Even just the sound of Caitlin’s voice is such a soothing balm, she’s missed it so much.

“Yeah, I um… is she okay?” Caitlin questions and her obvious concern for Laurel makes Felicity’s heart ache. She hates that she ever had a part in making her friend feel unwanted and used, when her kindness and warm heart are such blessing in Felicity’s life.

“Yeah, she’s in Gotham actually. She moved there for a job.”

“She did?” Caitlin questions in surprise and Felicity smiles. She knows that it’s totally unlike Laurel to make such a snap decision. It’s definitely true that her heartbreak over Tommy had something to do with the decision to move, but Felicity also knows that it’s just as much to do with how spectacular of an offer the job was.

“Yeah. She’s staying with Quentin’s cousin.” Felicity explains with a smile. Their second cousin is lovely but he has five kids all under ten. Only Laurel would have the patience for that.

“I’m glad to hear she’s okay. Um… it’s good to hear your voice.” Caitlin replies and her voice grows more timid and quieter, making Felicity’s heart constrict once more.

“Yours too.” She replies, picking at a thread on the seam of her pants. She takes a deep breath, knowing what she needs to do and wanting to. “I’m really sorry for how we argued.”

“Me too.” Caitlin replies quickly and Felicity smiles at the sincerity in her voice.

“Are you free? Can we talk properly?” She asks, looking up at the camera with trepidation.

“Definitely.” Caitlin answers almost immediately and Felicity smiles, turning off the camera and flopping down onto her bed.

The best friends talk for hours, airing everything they need to. Caitlin tells Felicity how she never begrudged helping with the videos but that she might have appreciated a little more acknowledgement. Felicity tells Caitlin that she totally understand that and how sorry she is for ever making her feel that way. They talk about the job offer and why it’s okay that they both had different reactions to receiving it, finally managing to air out what they need to and Felicity feels they’re so much stronger for it.

“And are you killing it there? I’m sure you’re killing it there.” Felicity smiles as they move onto how Caitlin is settling into Central City.

“I don’t know about killing it, but things seem to be going well.” Caitlin answers with a chuckle and Felicity grins.

“I knew it.” She states proudly. She knows that Caitlin will thrive at whatever she puts her mind to. She’s incredibly dedicated and driven and Felicity knows that she’s incredible, no matter where she is or what she’s doing.

“Have you sorted out your classes for the year?” Caitlin questions and Felicity heaves a long sigh. It’s been a long few weeks and preparing for her final year of grad school has only added to the stress she’s been feeling. She made the trip to campus to speak to Dr Wells in his office hours last week and the chat helped a lot, whilst also filling Felicity with a mixture of fear and anticipation for her plans.

“I’ve been talking with Dr. Wells. He seems to think it might be beneficial to take the credits as independent studies and apply to companies to shadow. It’s a good idea, and I think it will help form the basis for my thesis. I just need to figure out where to go.” Felicity explains with a frown. It will involve her writing up a paper explaining how each company is utilising new technology and transmedia to help fulfil their mission statement and hopefully that will help her form her thesis into something slightly more substantial.

“That sounds like a fantastic plan! Does he have any contacts he can put in a word for you with?” Caitlin questions and Felicity smiles at her enthusiasm. Caitlin will always tell her when something isn’t a good idea, especially when it comes to school work, so having her support means a lot.

“A couple I think but I sort of want to find the first one myself. Maybe find a company that’s just starting its expansion into transmedia, and obviously preferably a lab or a technology company.” Felicity frowns with a hum, knowing that she’s got a lot of research to do in order to find the companies she wants to shadow.

“Oh my god, Felicity. Yes.” Caitlin’s voice rings excitedly down the line and Felicity’s frown turns from thoughtful to confused.

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, you should totally come to STAR Labs!” Caitlin squeals and Felicity freezes, the idea never having even entered her mind.

“I… that’s actually perfect.” She stutters as she thinks it through. STAR Labs is a small but growing company that is just starting its exploration into transmedia to help grow its audience and consumer base.

“And we’d get to spend way more time together! You can stay in my apartment!” Caitlin grins and Felicity finds herself growing giddy at the idea. Getting away from her house and town might be just what she needs right now and getting to go stay with Caitlin is a perfect solution.

“You don’t think Barry will find it weird?” She suddenly questions, the idea popping into her mind. She doesn’t particularly care for the man but she doesn’t want things to be awkward if she’s going to be shadowing his company.

“I don’t think so. He’s totally over you rejecting the offer, he’s been asking after your well-being. I’ll talk to him for you but I’m sure he’ll say yes.” Caitlin explains and the grin Felicity can hear in her voice makes her giddy once more.

“Okay.” She states with a nod and hears Caitlin squeal on the other end of the line.

“Okay?”

“Okay. Looks like I’m coming to Central City.” She states with a frown, looking over to where her suitcase is tucked under her desk with a grin.

* * *

Getting out of town is surprisingly painless.

Her mother is excited about her potentially meeting a partner in Central City (even though Felicity explains to her numerous times that the trip is about school) and Quentin smiles at her proudly and kisses her goodbye with a ‘knock ‘em dead, kiddo’.

Sara is upset but understanding. She hugs her for a long time and drives her to the airport, jokingly clinging onto her arm in the departures hall before Felicity tells her that she really has to go through security but that she’ll miss her. They share a teary goodbye but soon enough, Felicity is flying halfway across the country and then she’s touching down in Central City.

She greets Caitlin, who comes to pick her up, with a _very_ long hug and a reiteration of the apologies they shared over the phone. Caitlin brushes her off and they call it water under the bridge, which Felicity is very grateful for because just being in Caitlin’s company makes her feel like herself again.

Soon enough, she settles into shadowing STAR Labs.

It’s a pretty simple process that mostly involves just following Caitlin around and asking her questions about what _she’s_ doing and how they plan to move forwards. Barry is civil, but keeps their interactions limited, which Felicity is wholly grateful for. Everything seems to be going incredibly well, and then Felicity gets invited to dinner at Mrs Queen’s house.

Felicity knows from Adrian that Barry’s investor is the mother of Oliver Queen, so she’s not holding out hope that she’ll particularly like the woman. Adrian also disclosed that Oliver is estranged from her, the two of them barely talking despite her being the only parent Oliver has left and Felicity knows that means one of two things.

She’s either normal and can see how awful her son is.

Or she’s twice as bad as him and is so awful that even her awful son will not speak to her.

“Felicity. Don’t be rude.” Caitlin reminds her as Felicity explains this to camera from her spot in the office that Barry has kindly let her use during her shadowing period here.

“You’re right. I should be more opened minded.” Felicity sighs, managing a smile when Caitlin nods her head approvingly.

It turns out, however, that Felicity had every right to be nervous.

Dinner is hosted at her condo which has _so_ much space for just one woman. Dinner is fully served each time with hired caterers and Felicity assumes planners to design the table layout. It’s so extravagant and ostentatious that she doesn’t really know where to look.

Then there’s Moira herself who is… something else entirely.

Felicity has honestly never been so intimidated by a person and that’s saying something because she has serious imposter syndrome in her department at school. Mrs Queen has a _lot_ of opinions on just about everything ranging from how young people should occupy their time to how you should properly fold a bedsheet and she talks extensively about all of them.

The dinner feels like it’s the worst self-help online seminar ever.

The thing is, Felicity knows who she is and how she wants to present herself, and she doesn’t feel like she needs help from the likes of Moira Queen, even though the advice appears to be freely given whenever she doesn’t ask for it.

But she holds her tongue and grits her teeth, for Caitlin’s sakes. The last thing her best friend needs is Felicity embarrassing her in front of her company’s most major investor.

In between shadowing, filming, editing, and dinner at Mrs Queen’s house on a semi-regular basis, Felicity is struggling to find the time for much else. She prioritises calling Laurel and Sara, the latter of whom seems to be doing just fine.

Laurel is loving her new job but that’s about it. She’s clearly very lonely in Gotham (the numerous care packages she sends to Felicity is enough of an indication) and even though she doesn’t mention Tommy, Felicity can tell that being in the same city as him but not seeing him or even getting an explanation for leaving so quickly is really getting to her.

Felicity is doing her best to make her feel better and Sara is planning a trip out to see her over her long weekend but Felicity just wishes she could do a little bit more.

She’s lamenting that to the camera when Caitlin enters the office with clenched teeth and trepidation in her eyes.

“What’s that look for? I know that look.” Felicity immediately narrows her eyes and Caitlin’s trepidation only appears to grow as she slides onto the seat next to Felicity.

“Okay, please don’t kill me… but will you please come to dinner at Mrs Queen’s again tonight?” Caitlin asks nervously and Felicity frowns, confused as to why Caitlin was so nervous to ask that.

“Why would I kill you over that? The woman is _very_ judgemental but I’ll bear it for you. I know how important these dinners are.” She smiles warmly, trying to reassure her friend but Caitlin just bites her lip, glancing nervously at the camera.

“That’s not all. She’s invited someone to take a look at how we’re doing things here at STAR Labs and he and his friend will also be at the dinner.” Caitlin continues and Felicity’s frown only deepens as she still can’t work out what she would be upset about in any of this.

“Okay? I’m great with new people. Charming _and_ polite.” Felicity states, nodding at the camera to emphasis her point.

“The consultant isn’t exactly a _new_ person…” Caitlin states and Felicity deflates as what she’s implying sinks in.

A person that Felicity already knows, who would be able to help a tech lab expanding into wed video, who also knows Moira Queen…

“No.” Felicity states in disbelief, her eyes widening as she stares at Caitlin hoping she’ll tell her that this is just all one big joke.

“Yes.” Caitlin answers, her wince only growing as Felicity groans loudly.

She came here to get away and concentrate on school, putting the mess of the summer behind her.

How is she supposed to do that if she has to see Oliver _fracking_ Queen again?

“I couldn’t quite believe it either but I suppose it does make sense? Mrs Queen is his mother after all.” Caitlin attempts to explain as she shrugs her shoulders but Felicity just lets out another long groan.

“I thought he was estranged from his mother!” Felicity cries and Caitlin winces once more.

“Partially estranged. He drops by once a year at her request.” She explains and Felicity groans loudly once more.

“And I apparently have the _worst_ timing in the world.” She states bitterly to the camera in disbelief. Of all the people she thought she run into at STAR Labs, Oliver Queen is the last.

“Please, Felicity? We really cannot afford to alienate him and he’s expecting you.” Caitlin pleads and Felicity sighs, her head and her heart conflicting each other. She knows logically that the right thing to do is to just suck it up for Caitlin but her heart is screaming at her to avoid the whole situation entirely.

She still has her suspicions about Oliver’s involvement in what happened with Tommy and Laurel and having seen her sister so despondent after that, she’s not sure she could look him in the eye without asking him about it.

“Why on earth would he even want to see me?” Felicity asks with another groan and Caitlin shrugs. It’s a baffling question, it’s not as if their interactions have been fun-filled adventures that are worth repeating. They’ve been awkward and weird and Felicity has _no_ clue as to why he’d want to see her again.

“Just please come to dinner. I’m not above begging.” Caitlin repeats and Felicity sighs, wrapping her arm around her best friend’s shoulders.

“Ugh fine, but only because I love you.” She relents, letting her head win out this time and Caitlin grins, wrapping her arms around her waist to pull Felicity into a tight hug.

“You’re the best.”

* * *

Dinner is actually surprisingly… bearable.

There’s clear tension between Oliver and his mother that Felicity doesn’t even know where to begin to unpack but his interactions with her are surprisingly… nice?

He asks after her family, and although the reminder of her sisters sets Felicity’s teeth on edge, it seems like he genuinely cares about the answer. He listens to her explain what she’s doing here and tells her that he thinks it sounds like an excellent thesis basis, which Felicity is totally surprised about.

However, Felicity also thinks that she might be warming to him by association because of the friend that he brought with him.

Felicity likes John Diggle practically on sight.

He’s tall, practically twice the size of Felicity, and his arms are the size of tree trunks. Felicity tells him this upon sight, her brain to mouth filter malfunctioning once again, but he merely laughs and introduces himself with a friendly grin. He’s kind, funny, and makes fun of Moira behind her back in a way that has Felicity laughing for the entire night.

The two of them are standing in the corner laughing when Oliver approaches, an inquisitive look on his face.

“What are the two of you gossiping about over here?” He questions and Felicity stares in utter bafflement as what looks like a small, affectionate smile crosses his face. It doesn’t stay for long, disappears practically as it appears, his face returning to his usual stoic ‘robot’ expression.

“Well wouldn’t you like to know.” John states with a wide smile of his own that he makes no effort to hide.

The two men hold eye contact for a while and Felicity can tell that they’re communicating something, but she cannot tell what. Oliver looks away after a long moment, what looks like a small blush covering his face. That baffles Felicity even further but John starts to speak again before she can begin to process it.

“So, Miss Felicity, tell me how my friend was when you first met him?” John asks, raising an inquisitive eyebrow, and Felicity frowns, looking at Oliver for a moment. He looks rather uncomfortable, but more annoyed at Diggle than anything else.

“You really want to know? It’s not the most flattering of portraits.” Felicity smirks, looking back to John with mirth in her eyes. Her response only seems to intrigue the tall man more and he nods.

“I _really_ want to know. We’ll call it research.” He chuckles and Felicity hears Oliver conceal a small groan.

“Okay… We first met at a wedding and he spent the majority of the night against the wall, ignoring everyone. He danced once, with me, and then removed himself to the foyer until his friend was ready to leave.” Felicity explains and John hums in obvious intrigue, turning to look at Oliver in amusement.

“In my defence, I knew no one outside my own party.” The CEO defends himself and Felicity chuckles with a raised eyebrow.

“And it’s very hard to meet people at a wedding?” She counters and he freezes before he tilts his head in a clear ‘touché’ motion. The almost banter baffles Felicity slightly and she turns her attention back to John in order to force herself to not overthink it.

“She’s got you there, brother. But you two danced? Did he sweep you off your feet?” John grins, nudging Felicity with his shoulder and she swallows awkwardly.

A glance at Oliver proves that he is also very uncomfortable with this line of questioning and is shooting daggers at John.

“It was certainly… memorable.” Felicity states diplomatically, forcing herself to bite her tongue as she remembers how she’s here for Caitlin’s benefit. Insulting their new consultant really isn’t the way to go about it.

She’s saved from the awkwardness by Moira calling out across the room after her. “Felicity? Come over here and explain your research to me again.”

Felicity is surprised as Oliver immediately groans, turning to look at his mother with a deep frown. “Mother, she doesn’t have to.”

“No, I… it’s okay.” Felicity tells him, looking at him strangely. She’s _never_ seen such an emotional reaction from him and for it to be in defence of _her_ is baffling.

“Luck be with you, Miss Felicity.” John whispers as she steps away and Felicity is grateful for his levity putting a smile on her face as she makes her way over to what feels like the dragon’s den.

He makes her night altogether far more enjoyable than any she’s spent at Moira Queen’s condo. Just an altogether great guy and Felicity is so glad to have met him.

She’s explaining this to her camera in her new office the next day when there’s a knock on the door and she turns to see who it is.

“Felicity Smoak? There’s Miss Remarkable!” John Diggle grins from the doorway, a kind smile on his face and it immediately makes Felicity grin.

“John! Hi! Come on in.” She tells him, briefly forgetting about the camera, but it’s the first thing John notices as he enters.

“What are you doing? Oh, are you participating in Allen’s new ‘lab technique’ videos?” He questions, wiggling his eyebrows and smirking to tell Felicity that he’s very much on the same wavelength as her in regards to Barry’s explorations into web video.

Felicity freezes, looking between John and the camera a few times before she sighs. “No, I um… this is a personal video.”

“Oh, like a vlog?” John questions as if it’s nothing, sitting down next to her with a smile.

“Yup.” Felicity says awkwardly but John just smiles at the camera, bending so that he can examine the lens, Felicity guesses anyway.

“Can I be on it?” He questions excitedly as he sits up straight and Felicity frowns, looking nervously between the camera and her new friend.

“Umm sure… I guess… but you have to promise me one thing.” She tells him, clearly peaking John’s curiosity once more. 

“Go on.”

“You can’t watch the previous videos. And you definitely can’t tell Oliver!” She states determinedly, turning and pointing a finger in John’s face.

“That’s two things.” He replies amusedly, patiently pushing her hand away. Felicity sighs, wincing as she thinks of John watching how much she’s insulted his friend on her videos.

“I just… I don’t say the nicest things about him and I know he’s your friend and I just don’t want you to think bad of me because of them and I…” Felicity starts to ramble, her brain taking over as she spirals, thinking of how mortifying it would be to have John see those earlier videos.

“Wow, I got you, Felicity. He is my friend and that’s why I understand. Oliver… he’s not great at first impressions. Plus, his social skills are about that of a man starved any form of social interaction for five years.” John interrupts with a chuckle and Felicity heaves a sigh of relief before she frowns.

“That is highly specific.”

“Hmm.” John answers, looking at her through his peripheral vision and Felicity shakes her.

“I was about to tell the internet about dinner last night?” She shifts the conversation, gesturing towards the camera, and John grins, his eyes lighting up.

“Oh! What about that thing…?” He starts but Felicity interrupts him with a raise of her hand and a smirk.

“Oh. That’s not how we do things here! Do you think you can be Oliver?” She questions as she reaches for the hat she uses for Oliver’s costume on the vlog.

John frowns and looks between the hat and the camera before a smirk crosses across his face. He’s almost like a giddy child and Felicity smirks as he straightens his posture in the same way she does when she plays Oliver. “Can I be Oliver? Give me the costume.”

They have an absolute blast as they recreate the conversation Moira and Oliver had about Oliver’s younger sister, Thea. It was extremely awkward but John totally nails Oliver’s character and Felicity has to stop herself from laughing practically all the way through the scene.

“You know you should meet Thea.” John comments when they finish, pulling the hat off his head with a smile. Felicity frowns, from everything she’s heard about Thea Queen so far, she’ll need about ten more ‘accomplishments’ before she is even deigned to be in the same room as her.

“Why? So I can feel inferior next to her accomplishments?” Felicity questions with a scoff as she removes the glasses she’s been using as ‘Mrs Queen’s’ costume.

“No, because she’s a cool kid and so are you and I think you’d get on.” John tells hers with a reprimanding look but Felicity just raises a dubious eyebrow.

“Is she much like her brother?”

John sighs with a shake of his head. “No. No one is like Oliver.”

“That much is for certain.” Felicity states with a look to the camera. John sighs next to her, shaking his head at the camera, and Felicity briefly notes that he’s very natural in front of the camera.

“Hey, I know he doesn’t make the best first impression, but he really does look after the people he cares about.” John implores with a frown and Felicity sighs.

“Oh really?” She questions, raising a dubious eyebrow. She doesn’t want to argue with John and she knows that Oliver is surrounded by a lot of decent, kind, and fun people, which she supposes must say _something_ about him, but it more baffles her instead.

“Yeah. Just last month, a friend of his was in a bad spot, the girl he was seeing wasn’t good for him and he got him out of there.” John tells her and Felicity immediately freezes.

Is he talking about…?

There’s no way he’s talking about anything but Tommy, right?

But then that means…

“He did what?” Felicity questions through gritted teeth, watching as John smiles at the camera, completely unaware of how Felicity is starting to seethe next to him.

“He removed his friend from the situation, got him away from the girl.” John states as if it’s the simplest thing in the world and Felicity forces herself to take a deep breath, although she does take a sideways glance at the camera.

“What was wrong with the girl?” She manages to question, although she can hear the quiver in her voice as it shakes with anger.

“Something about her being only in it for the money? I don’t know all the details. It’s just an example. Oliver cares about the people he loves.” John states nonchalantly with a small smile to Felicity. She manages a small quirk of her own lips but the rage within is threatening to bubble over.

_Only in it for the money…_

How _dare_ he?

“The friend. Who was he?” Felicity cannot resist asking and John smiles with a nod.

“Tommy Merlyn. You should meet him. You’d get on.” John replies, unknowingly hammering the final nail into the coffin and Felicity clenches her teeth as she replies.

“Oh. We’ve met.”

* * *

Felicity cannot believe that she was right.

Who on earth does Oliver Queen think he is?

Does he think that they’re employees at his company that he can just tell what to do?

Does he think his money and status allows him to use them all like pieces in his chess game?

She’s been stewing it over with Caitlin when she has to suddenly leave for a meeting with Mrs Queen. Felicity is ranting away to her camera about it, as that seems to have become her main way to vent nowadays.

She can’t believe that it was _Oliver_ who caused her sister so much pain and how Tommy could just allow him to do so. She’s sure that Helena also had a hand in it, her new ‘friend’ has been ignoring her texts and calls, and Felicity learns from Laurel that she was fully ignored by the socialite when she ran into her in Gotham a few days ago.

She’s so infuriated by it all and she wishes they could just leave them all behind in the summer but it seems that Oliver Queen has wormed his way into her life and she can’t get rid of him.

She’s almost at the point of screaming in frustration at the camera when there’s a knock on her door. She turns, expecting it to be Caitlin, but flies up from her seat when she sees Oliver Queen stood there.

“This… it really isn’t a good time.” She immediately states, meaning both the fact that she’s filming _and_ that she’s so worked up over the revelation of his hand in her sister’s heartbreak.

“Are you alright?” Oliver immediately asks but his concern does not surprise her as it did the other night, it only infuriates her.

“I’m actually not and would rather you were not here right now.” She states as plainly as she can, but she can hear that her voice is betraying her attempt to be polite.

“Please, just let me explain.” Oliver tells her and Felicity groans.

“I don’t want to talk to you right now, Oliver!”

“I’m sorry but the last few months have been crazy and I can’t keep this in any longer. Please just sit and let me explain this.” He tells her, gesturing to the seat and Felicity takes an angry deep breath, turning and sitting down.

“This should be good.” She states bitterly to the camera, alerting him to its presence and he frowns as he sits down.

“Are you _filming?”_ He questions in obvious bafflement and Felicity bites the inside of her cheek.

“Here and now or not at all.” She states confrontationally and Oliver frowns, looking entirely confused but he nods.

He takes a deep breath, adjusting his ridiculously straight posture on the seat before he swallows thickly and turns to her. “Okay, I um… I didn’t come to STAR Labs to monitor their progress or to see my mother. I um… I came here to see you.”

He’s clearly fighting some serious nerves and his words completely take Felicity aback. Why on earth would he want to see her?

She thought they for sure had a mutual dislike of one each other.

“You what?”

“Two parts of me have been at war. Your loud family, your financial situation, it’s everything I’ve been taught to avoid. But I cannot deny how I have felt from the moment I saw you at the Cutter wedding. There was just something about you.” Oliver tells her, blinking at her and his words take her aback so much that she furrows her brow.

“I was standing at the back of the hall.” She states in bafflement as to how _that_ would cause any form of reaction from anyone.

“You were fiddling with the waist tie on your dress. It was red.” Oliver tells her and his looks is so intense as he gazes at her.

It makes Felicity freeze in total shock. She hadn’t even remembered that detail and his admission shows her that he’s been paying far closer attention to her than she thought.

“I have been fighting this for so long but Felicity Smoak, I am in love with you.”

Her silence appears to have prompted him to explain further and Felicity is completely shocked. 

“I… what?”

Her mouth opens and closes numerous times, shaking her head in utter bafflement. How on earth are they on such different pages? How on earth has she so completely misjudged his feelings?

“I can’t believe it either. My heart has completely overwhelmed my judgement but you…”

“I certainly hope your judgement can be some solace in your rejection because those feelings are not mutual.” Felicity finds herself interrupting, being unable to listen to him continue to _insult_ her any further.

Her words seem to baffle him and he physically recoils, blinking before he turns back to face her. “You… you’re rejecting me?”

“That _surprises_ you?” Felicity questions, her voice rising to a ridiculously high pitch in her indignation. How on earth can he not be aware of her feelings? “You _just_ told me that my social standing and my family mean that you’ve been attempting to avoid your affection since we’ve met.”

“That… I didn’t mean it like that.” Oliver frowns, after a moment of silence where shock registers over his face. He retreats in on himself, looking as if she’s seriously hurt him, but then Felicity just reminds herself of Laurel’s heartbreak and Adrian’s mistreatment, and she feels her anger come back full force.

“No? How did you mean it?” She retaliates, raising an eyebrow and Oliver frowns, shaking his head.

“May I ask why?” He asks suddenly and Felicity scoffs in disbelief.

“Why I’m rejecting you? Shall we start with the fact that the nicest thing you’ve ever said about me was that I was ‘decent enough’, you act like you’d rather be in any other room whenever you’re around me, I don’t meet your checklist for what ‘makes an accomplished woman’, and then there’s what you did to Laurel.”

Felicity watches as he recoils further and further into himself at her words, confusion but also understanding dawning on his face.

“Laurel?” He questions at her last admission and Felicity scoffs, totally baffled as to how he seems to not even know.

“Removing Tommy from town? You tore my sister’s heart into shreds!” Felicity counters, throwing her hands out. Her sister is one of the kindest people she has ever known and she’s so mad at the man in front of her for causing her so much pain.

Oliver looks totally shocked at her explanation of Laurel’s pain which Felicity cannot understand. What did he think? That Laurel was just going to brush it off as if she and Tommy hadn’t been dating for the entire summer?

He forced Tommy to leave without even saying goodbye. Laurel found out through a _tweet._ Talk about insensitive.

“I… I didn’t mean any harm. I merely doubted her long-term faith in the relationship. I was trying to protect my friend.” Oliver tries to explain and Felicity can see obvious pain in his eyes, but his words make her ignore that.

“Her…? What?” Felicity frowns. Laurel is not particularly forthcoming with her emotions, a hangover from her parents’ divorce, but she really loved Tommy, that much was evident to anyone who knows her.

The arrogance of Oliver Queen to assume he could read Laurel when he doesn’t even know her and made no effort to when he was in her company.

“It was confirmed to me at Tommy’s party. I witnessed an indiscretion.” Oliver tells her with fervour and Felicity’s mouth falls open once more.

“An indiscretion?” She questions in total shock.

She knows he cannot be correct there. Laurel _detests_ cheating, she hates even the mention of it. Whatever he _thinks_ he saw… he’s wrong. She knows that her sister would _never._

“You cannot deny that the rest of your family has given me cause to doubt her genuine interest in the match.” Oliver presses and Felicity frowns.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Your energetic other sister, your mother. Every time I was around her all she talked about was Tommy and Laurel. It seemed to be her only focus in life.” Oliver groans, narrowing his hands together and Felicity freezes, turning to look back at the camera as she grits her teeth. She has nothing she can say to that, he’s _right._ She can feel him moving next to her and a glance out of her peripheral vision shows his expression softening. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any offence. I have never thought of you that way.”

Felicity swallows thickly. She’s doesn’t want his sympathy right now and seeing as they’re airing all their dirty laundry, she turns back to him with her final question for him. “And Adrian Chase? What’s your excuse for running _his_ life?”

Oliver merely rolls his eyes at her question, scoffing. “Oh, his life has been so hard.” He states bitterly, gritting his teeth as he averts his gaze from hers.

“You denied him his inheritance.” Felicity tells him, her anger leading her to lean in and she’s shocked when he turns back around to her, anger clearly blaring in his eyes.

He seems to realise his mistake and pulls back, blinking and taking a deep breath to control his breathing which has gotten short and irate.

“There is more of a story there than you think there is.” He tells her through clenched teeth, shaking his head.

Felicity frowns, shaking off the intrigue that piques at his words. She swallows thickly and rights her shoulders, turning to face him clearly and plainly as she speaks her next words.

“Whatever the case, you have made it clear to me through your pride, arrogance and selfishness that you are the last man on earth I could _ever_ fall in love with!”

Her voice gets louder and she glares at him, pulling back and softening slightly as the clear pain returns to his eyes.

He schools his expression quickly, looking between her and the camera before he takes a deep breath.

“I’m sorry to have hurt you. It was never my intention. I was unaware of your feelings towards me.” His voice is far softer but Felicity is slightly too worked up to notice, her anger and impulsive heart clearing leading her through this conversation.

And then she says the most damning thing that perhaps has ever left her mouth.

“Well why don’t you watch my videos?” 

* * *

The elevator doors ding loudly as the shaft draws the carriage up to the penthouse suite. The sole passenger of the elevator startles as the doors open, shaking his shoulders as he straightens from where he’s been leaning against the mirrored walls. The day has taken its toll on him and yet, he knows there’s still far more to be done.

Oliver is still shaking as he makes his way through the hotel room, having successfully warned Diggle off of meeting him for dinner. He feels completely out of it, as if something else is operating his body, and he sinks onto the bed with a long sigh, barely managing to pull off his tie and shoes before he lays down.

He has no idea how he could have been so wrong.

He thought for sure that they were on the same page, that their lively conversations had been her way of flirting, that she had returned his affection with the same ferocity as he feels.

But instead… she hates him.

Detests him with every fibre of her being. She can barely stand being in the same room.

All this time he thought they were fostering a connection but all that was growing for her was the depth of her hatred.

Oliver shakes his head, he knows that he needs to fully understand the situation before he can know what to do next, if anything.

But it seems like the object of his affections has made that remarkably easy for him.

He reaches for his laptop, ignoring the text from Thea that pings through that he already ignored on his phone, and pulls up his web browser. He opens YouTube and types in ‘Felicity Smoak’.

The first video that appears is entitled ‘My Name is Felicity Smoak – Ep. 1’ and he supposes that’s a good a place to start as any.

He clicks on the link and settles back, hoping that this will shed some light on how they have gotten on such utterly differing paths.

What he sees is… illuminating.

His actions, and the actions of the people he calls his friends, are presented to him in an entirely different light. He sees Felicity’s perspective on their interactions and her and her sisters’ _lively_ recreations of the time they’ve spent together. He learns how she has misinterpreted his awkwardness around new people and in new situations to be pride and arrogance. He can see how deeply his words have affected her, especially his initial brush off in his attempt to get Tommy off of his back.

He feels _awful_ for Felicity as he watches her friend leave, the sight of her so clearly upset cutting through him like the sharpest of blades, but he also laughs with her. Even though these video diaries are the exemplification of her hatred for him, Oliver cannot help but note how endearing she is to the camera and how much love, creativity, and care shine through her videos.

And she truly shines in front of the camera, her beauty and radiance transmitting even through the screen. Even as she’s detailing how awful she seems to have found every conversation they’ve had together, he cannot help but note the shine of her blonde hair in the light and the passionate spark in her bright blue eyes.

And it’s then he knows that getting over Felicity Smoak is going to be one of the hardest things he has ever done because the depth of his affection is so much more than even he knew.

He has to take a break when he reaches the video with Adrian.

Just the sight of the man’s smug face makes Oliver want to throw his laptop across the room, let alone seeing him laughing and with his arm draped over the woman Oliver now knows himself to be very deeply in love with.

He takes a deep breath and heads to the hotel gym for half an hour to clear his head, before responding to Thea’s numerous worried texts to tell her he just needs some time alone.

He then sits back down in front of his laptop and watches as his arch nemesis tells a severely warped version of their grievances to the woman that Oliver loves.

He has to pause the video several times to get through it and it makes him sick to his stomach to watch Adrian so easily manipulate someone Oliver cares about yet again. The memory of Thea’s face is far too fresh in his mind and the idea of Adrian hurting Felicity in a similar way is an incredibly unbearable thought.

Finally the video comes to an end and Oliver moves on, watching the moment Laurel found out about them leaving town. He has to admit that he feels some true remorse at the sight of her being so despondent but that still doesn’t explain to him what he saw at Tommy’s party.

He watches right up until her most recent video, watching the moment within which John unknowingly reveals Oliver’s own part in Laurel’s heartbreak. He can see the anger radiating off of Felicity through the screen, in the same way it radiated off of her in that office today and he takes a deep breath, examining what his options are from here on out.

  1. He could go home to Starling City right now and force himself to forget that Felicity Smoak ever even existed.
  2. He could wait out the remainder of what was supposed to be his stay and hope that they can continue to fake smiles for a professional environment.



Oliver doesn’t like the sound of either of those options.

He’s in far too deep to just forget about Felicity but he also doesn’t want to make her uncomfortable.

And there’s still the matter of Adrian niggling in the back of his mind.

He takes a deep breath and a third option springs to mind, one that allows him to explain himself to Felicity with as little pain and interaction on her side of things.

He heads to his desk, picks up his pen, and starts writing.

It takes him three hours and about fifteen attempts, but he finally ends up with a letter he hopes will explain what he needs to.

_Felicity,_

_Please do not misread this letter as an attempt from me to change your feelings, or for me to reiterate my own. I’m sure neither of us are particularly interested in repeating that interaction._

_However, you have made it clear to me in person and through your videos, that there are some actions of mine which deserve further explanation. I hope I can explain myself clearly enough to address two of the crimes you charged me with in our last conversation._

_Firstly, the situation with Tommy and your sister. As I admitted yesterday, I was directly involved in encouraging Tommy to leave town and I stand by what I said, both in their mismatched nature as a pairing and the overenthusiasm from your mother. I feel, however, that I may have overestimated your sister’s prompting of my intervention, and underestimated Tommy’s._

_I have known Tommy for a long time, and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that he falls in love easily. It takes very little for him to become attached to anything or anyone and it never lasts or ends well. I will admit I noticed a difference when he was with Laurel but due to what seemed to be her own reservations (which I can clearly see now is just your sister’s way of expressing herself), I still felt it important for me as a friend to stop it from ending in heartbreak. I know that you had reservations about the match from your videos and I can only hope that you can see what might have led me to worry for my friend’s heart._

_This being said, it does not negate what I saw at Tommy’s birthday party, where I clearly saw her kiss another man, and I think that Tommy’s willingness to leave might say something too._

_Tommy falls in love easily, but he also falls out of love easily too._

_I really am sorry for any pain my actions caused for your sister. It was never my intention and I can be a bit much when it comes to protecting those I love._

_Which leads me onto my next point… Adrian Chase and my supposed destruction of his future. Please know that the story he has told you is all lies and falsehoods, concocted by a man who is a master of deceit and makes it his profession._

_As Chase told you, we were raised together as brothers and my father favoured him, offering to fund his education when the time came. He, unfortunately, passed before he could fulfil that promise and my father left all his money to me and my sister, my mother having enough of a fortune of her own from her own work._

_The death of my father changed my life forever. I was suddenly CEO of a company when I was just a freshman in college and with my mother deep in grief, I also found myself as the sole guardian of my little sister, Thea. When Adrian came to me asking for the money for college just days after my father’s funeral, I thought nothing of sending $125,000 straight to his bank account._

_I can only give grief as an explanation._

_We went our separate ways and grew further apart. My time was filled with work and looking after Thea, who my mother continued to neglect despite throwing herself into her investments. I say this as I know that Chase has given you his own version of why my relationship with her is fractured. The truth is that it is purely down to her mistreatment of my sister who is one of the sweetest people on the planet and deserves no harm._

_Because of that, I hope you realise how difficult it will be to share this next part of the story with you and I hope you will keep it to yourself, for her sakes if not for mine._

_I barely heard from Adrian for the next few years. He reached out to me asking for more money a few times, which I always refused given that he squandered what I sent him with no sign of college degree anywhere to be found._

_Then, far more recently than I’m sure any of us would like to know, I received an email from him. It was nothing particularly alarming. Niceties, wanting to put the past behind us, and then a photo of a penthouse apartment deck at sunset with a girl in a hot tub._

_I immediately recognised the apartment, the deck, and especially the girl, as my sister, Thea._

_I left immediately to see her (she still knows nothing of the email) and burst in on them together. Thea is just 19 years old, Adrian is more than 10 years her senior and it was clear to me that there was something going on deeper than just my sister acting on her childhood crush. I offered to write him a check if he left immediately and he took the bait, leaving my sister heartbroken at the realisation that he had just been using her._

_She is still shaken about the experience now._

_I hope you can understand why I felt the need to explain myself as well as how sensitive this is to me and my family. Please destroy this letter when you’ve read it. I just wanted to make you aware of my perspective, as your videos have done for me for yours._

_Thank you for reading this and for giving me the benefit of the doubt,_

_Sincerely,  
Oliver Queen_

He seals the letter with a nod and writes Felicity’s name on the front of the envelope, endeavouring to take it to her tomorrow morning and book a flight back to Starling City and Thea for the afternoon.

He’ll leave the ball in her court.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, okay, I am finally done with this one 40k later.   
> Firstly, thank you all so much to everyone who has responded so kindly to the first two chapters, I really hope you enjoy this last one as well! It's been pretty much all I've been concentrating on for the past two days (unless you're my university lecturers in disguise then I've definitely been working on schoolwork primarily).   
> Secondly, I never expected this to spark so many people to watch the Lizzie Bennet Diaries which is so cool! It's such an awesome show and this literally wouldn't exist without it so I'm really happy people are going to watch it! 
> 
> I really hope you enjoy this final chapter and that this story has brought you a morsel of joy in these trying times. Please stay safe and wash your hands, stay at home if your job allows and keep returning to the wonderful land of AO3 for some levity <3

Felicity knows what it’s like for something to happen that completely shifts your world view.

It’s happened to her a few times.

First was when she was seven and her dad left. That showed her that people aren’t always there for you the way for are for them and sometimes, you have to make your own way without the help of others.

Then when she was twelve, her mom meeting Quentin and them moving in with the Lances showed her that family isn’t always biological and sometimes you find the people you love the most in places you never expected to.

Her high school boyfriend, Cooper, who she considers to be her first love shifted her perspective and taught her to be more wary with who she gives her heart to, as they’re not always who they seem and sometimes people do just use you to get what they want. For Cooper, it was the algorithm Felicity had written that gained Cooper his spot as valedictorian.

Receiving Oliver Queen’s letter is one of those world-view-shifting moments for Felicity.

She’ll be honest and say that it takes her a few reads to get over her all-consuming rage before she can read it with a (semi-)objective eye.

After almost a dozen read-throughs of the letter, she’s still unsure of how she feels about Oliver’s involvement with the Tommy and Laurel situation. On the one hand, she knows that he has a point when it comes to him knowing Tommy better than she, or even Laurel. The two have been friends for far longer than any of the Smoak-Lances have known them and Felicity can see why the _other_ matter mentioned in the letter would lead Oliver to be more cautious as well.

However, that still doesn’t negate the fact that Oliver felt he had the right to intervene and that he judged Laurel’s emotions without consulting anyone who possibly could have explained the reason for her seeming lack of interest. He was still one of the main contributors to the pain that Laurel felt and is still feeling and Felicity doesn’t think anything he’s said can negate that.

But then there’s what Oliver said about Tommy being easily removed from Laurel’s affection. He’s not wrong there. If Tommy _had_ been as attached as Felicity assumed he was, would he have allowed himself to just be torn away from Laurel? He’s a grown man, not a child, he’s clearly capable of making his own decisions.

It’s all very confusing.

The second matter Oliver discusses in his letter is far plainer to Felicity though and that is the saga of Adrian Chase.

Felicity knows Adrian to be motivated by money and fame, wanting to spread his name around to as many people as possible and spend his time partying with as many pretty girls as possible. She had no delusions about that, even when they got involved. There were way too many red flags for that but she had enjoyed his flirtatious behaviour and he made her feel good.

She knows she believed his story about Oliver because she wanted more ammo to hate him and ridicule him and she feels awful for that now. She knows she has a tendency to judge people quickly and it seems she got her paths all mixed up when it comes to Oliver or Adrian.

She can’t help but find herself slightly grateful for pushing Adrian away from her the night of Tommy’s party and yet, she’s still not sure she can say that she _likes_ Oliver Queen.

The person she feels truly sorry for here is Thea Queen. A young woman who’s heart was used as a pawn in a game that she didn’t even know she was playing. Oliver was right to include the reminder to Felicity that the main reason he wishes for her to not reveal this story on her videos is because of Thea.

She would never do that, especially not to a young woman she has never met.

“Felicity? Are you okay?” Caitlin asks the next night, watching how she’s laid out across the couch with the letter over her face.

“I don’t even know anymore.” She groans, wiping her eyes as she sits up and slips the paper back into the envelope. 

“You must have read that thing almost twenty times now. How is there anything else you can learn from it?” Caitlin sighs, moving to settle down next to Felicity and wrap her arm around her shoulders.

“I don’t know. It just… I’ve been such a fool.” Felicity sighs as she leans into her best friend, resting her head against her shoulder.

“A fool? Felicity Smoak? Never.” Caitlin smirks sarcastically and Felicity snorts.

“Shut it. I just… ugh. I can’t believe I allowed myself to be manipulated by Adrian that badly.” She huffs but Caitlin merely tugs her head up so that Felicity can look at her.

“Hey, he’s a manipulative guy and I know you won’t tell me the whole story of what’s in that letter, but you can’t let Oliver Queen make you feel bad about yourself.” Caitlin tells her with a reproachful tone to her voice and Felicity sighs, shaking her head.

“I just… he’s opened my eyes to looking at things differently I guess.” She tries to explain, biting the inside of her cheek.

“I still hate what he did to Laurel.” Caitlin states and Felicity nods.

“Me too. There’s one part about that I still don’t understand though.” She frowns, looking back over to where she’s laid the letter down carefully on the coffee table.

“What?”

“He said that he saw Laurel kiss someone else at Tommy’s party.” Felicity sighs, feeling guilty for revealing even that.

However, she supposes that Oliver did imply that when he crashed her video and admitted his love for her, and it’s not as if Caitlin is going to tell anyone.

“What? That’s got to be a lie.” Caitlin tells her with a deep frown and Felicity sighs.

“I don’t know. The rest of this is so earnest, I can’t believe that he’d lie just on that part.” She grits her teeth, totally unaware of how she feels about this. She _knows_ Laurel would never kiss another man, but why on earth would Oliver lie when he fully admitted to his mistakes in the rest of the letter?

“Then it was set-up.” Caitlin states simply and Felicity frowns.

“By who? I think the only one capable of a plan that convoluted is my mother.” Felicity comments with a raised eyebrow and a roll of her eyes.

Caitlin laughs her off and distracts her with takeout and a period movie but they get their answer the next day when Helena Bertinelli sweeps into STAR Labs, supposedly just ‘here for a visit’.

Felicity is not dumb, actually she’s far from it, and she can smell a rat from a mile away. The closest thing Helena has to a job is promoting products on her Instagram page and living off of her parents’ money, something she knows the socialite labels as ‘marketing and PR’. It certainly doesn’t give her due course for a visit to STAR Labs and she can’t claim she came for Felicity’s sake because she’s been ignoring her calls and messages since she and her brother left their hometown.

No, it’s clear that Helena has seen Felicity’s videos (both the one where Oliver proclaimed his love and where he caught her off guard once again to deliver the letter) and there’s something she wants to know.

Namely, Felicity guesses, the contents of the letter.

Caitlin is also dubious from the moment she arrives, even more so when they overhear Moira Queen fawning over how perfect a match Helena would be for Oliver at dinner that night. She spends hours once they get back to her apartment ranting at Felicity about the socialite’s clear ulterior motives and whilst Felicity knows she’s right, she has no idea what she can do about it.

It all comes to a head when Helena surprises her in Felicity’s office on a day that she knows Felicity shoots. She’s all fake smiles for the camera and she makes an elaborate apology that ends in a very awkward fake hug. Felicity _really_ doesn’t know what to do about that and how she’s going to get the answers she’s looking for from Helena.

Luckily for her, that’s what best friends are for.

Caitlin appears in the doorway, claiming that Felicity’s mother has called the wrong number and is on the line in Caitlin’s own office, leaving just Helena and herself in Felicity’s office with the camera.

And that’s when Caitlin pounces.

“So you offered to help Felicity film her videos when she and Laurel were staying at Netherfield? Why?” Felicity’s best friend questions, raising a suspicious eyebrow at Helena.

“She’s very compelling and I like to be as helpful as possible.” Helena counters calmly, flipping her hair as she smiles warmly at the camera.

“So it had nothing to do with changing the way we had presented you in the previous videos?” Caitlin presses, her eyes narrowing slightly and making Helena freeze.

“Well, you have to admit that no one likes being mocked on camera in front of thousands of viewers. That may have played a part.” Helena’s answer is diplomatic but it was probably to be suspected, she’s hardly going to admit to be motivated by her own vanity on a vlog with hundreds of thousands of viewers.

“Okay, and you also played a part in convincing Tommy to leave town?” Caitlin changes tactics, gesturing between Helena and the camera as if offering her the chance to explain herself.

“I reminded him of his other responsibilities. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings.” Helena continues diplomatically, a clearly fake concern to her voice.

“So you know that he and Laurel were serious? That they loved each other?” Caitlin presses, her frown deepening as she regards the socialite.

“I don’t know whether love is the word I would use but I suppose I could see there was clearly a strong attraction there. This is an odd line of questioning, I must admit.” Helena huffs, turning back to look at Caitlin but Felicity sees that as her cue. She’s been stood by the doorway, having realised quickly that the phone call was a hoax and has been listening to Caitlin’s questions with interest.

“No, it’s not.” She states as she re-enters the room. Both Caitlin and Helena spin to look at her in surprise and the former moves to her usual seat behind the camera, allowing Felicity to continue what she started. “So why didn’t you tell Tommy about this ‘strong attraction’ that you could see from Laurel when Oliver tried to convince him to leave?”

“Like I said, my brother has other responsibilities.” Helena huffs with a roll of her eyes and Felicity’s brow furrows deeper.

“That means he should be denied true love?” She questions with a disbelieving shake of her head, but that just earns her a scoff from Helena.

“True love? Please. He is my brother, my blood, I was just looking out for him.” Helena states defensively and bitterly.

Felicity grits her teeth and shakes her head, sharing a disbelieving look with Caitlin. “Unbelievable.”

Helena huffs, flipping her hair _yet again_ and whirling around on Felicity with clear anger burning in her eyes. “Well should we talk about your family, Felicity? You are all drowning in debt, your mother seems to live on an entirely different planet. Your sister, Sara, seems to have no direction in life and even Laurel is clearly going nowhere in her career. Can you blame me for wondering whether she had some financial interest in the pairing with my brother?”

Felicity freezes in total shock. She never imagined that the socialite would admit to intervening there in front of the camera or switch from her ‘fake friendly’ routine so quickly.

“Well then I guess we’re done. Thank you for the truth. Finally.” Felicity tells her after a thick swallow, gritting her teeth.

“I suppose we are.” Helena sighs with a dismissive smile but makes no move to leave, making Felicity narrow her eyes.

“But you’re still _here._ Which tells me something else.” Felicity states, things finally lining up in her mind.

“Oh really?”

“You want to know the contents of Oliver’s letter. You want to know whether he figured out your involvement in breaking up Tommy and Laurel.” Felicity accuses, turning to Helena with narrowed eyes.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Helena feigns innocence, looking back to the camera with a shake of her head.

“The ‘indiscretion’ he witnessed at Tommy’s party? I know Laurel, she would _never_ cheat.” Felicity tells her, shaking her head. She can’t believe that she’s managed to work it out so quickly.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Helena’s denial is about as good as a confirmation as her eyes scatter from side to side clearly nervously.

Felicity sighs, shaking her head. “Sure you don’t. But you still want to know what Oliver said, because you like him and despite your best efforts, he doesn’t like you back. No, _he_ fell for a penniless grad student, embarrassing family and all.”

Felicity knows that her words are cruel but after Helena made the trip halfway across the country just to poke her nose into something that is none of her business and then proceeded to insult Felicity’s family _again,_ she’s done with being nice.

“You are something else, Felicity Smoak.” Helena bites with her teeth clenched.

“Thank you very much.” Felicity replies with a small smile, tilting her head.

“You can go now. And I hope for your sake’s that your brother doesn’t find out what you did.” Caitlin comments, gesturing to the door and she and Felicity watch as Helena glares at them both before standing up with a huff. She storms from the room, leaving only the smell of her expensive perfume lingering.

“Ugh god, I have had enough drama for a lifetime.” Felicity groans once the sound of her heels clicking down the hallway can no longer be heard.

“Tell me about it. I am so glad we’re heading home for Thanksgiving tomorrow.” Caitlin sighs as she slides next to Felicity on their filming bench.

“Ah home, how I have missed you.” Felicity states wistfully, tugging a laughing Caitlin into a hug.

* * *

The next few weeks pass in a blur. Thanksgiving is wonderful and Felicity is so grateful for the time she gets to spend with her family all under one roof again. It seems for a while like they’re finally done with all the drama that the summer brought and Felicity throws herself into her school work, finishing both her write-up for her independent study at STAR Labs and her next one for which she consults Sara’s friend Ray and his start-up ‘Palmer Technologies’.

Laurel heads back to Gotham and Caitlin back to Central City, leaving merely their parents, Sara, and Felicity in the house once more.

And that’s when everything blows up again.

Sara announces that she’s heading to Vegas with her friends for New Years and she asks Quentin if he could give her some money seeing as she doesn’t have enough to fund it herself.

It annoys Felicity, rubs her up the wrong way. Sara is totally aware of their financial struggles and Felicity cannot believe that she would have the cheek to ask their parents for money so that she can go party with her friends.

And it only angers her more when Quentin agrees, never being able to say no to his baby girl.

“You shouldn’t let her go.” Felicity huffs later that day as she stands in Quentin’s study.

“I can’t exactly tell her what to do anymore, Felicity. She’s not a kid.” Quentin reminds her, sending her a look and Felicity shakes her head.

“You can refuse to give her the money.” She reminds him but Quentin just waves her off.

“It’ll just turn into an argument. It’s not worth the stress. I’ll just give it to her and she can go to Vegas with her friends and have fun. I’m sure she’ll get it all out her system soon.” Quentin tells Felicity with a shrug and Felicity groans, shaking her head.

“You’ve been saying that for years. She’s almost 25, Quentin.” Felicity reminds her stepdad with a roll of her eyes.

Quentin chuckles, stepping away from his laptop to place a comforting hand on Felicity’s arm. “I know, kiddo, but she’s young. She’ll be fine.”

“I’ve had to drag her home drunk from Verdant more times that I can count in the past year. Do you really think she’ll be safe in _Vegas?”_ Felicity presses, shaking her head. She loves Sara but she’s not exactly the best at looking after herself whilst drunk and she can’t imagine she’ll be better at that in a place she doesn’t know with no one responsible to look after her.

“She’s a big girl. She’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it, kiddo.” Quentin smiles and Felicity shakes her head, leaving his office with a huff.

She’s talking it through in front of the camera later when Sara bursts into her room, anger written all over her face. Instead of confusion, Felicity just feels her own anger flare at the sight of it and Sara huffs as she gestures for Felicity to move over and sits down next to her.

“Since when do you get to tell Dad what he can and can’t do?” Sara questions, crossing her arms over her chest with a frown and Felicity scoffs with a shake of her head.

“We’re in _debt,_ Sara, we have _no_ money and I can’t believe that you think it’s okay to ask them to borrow more to fund your partying.” Felicity explains with a huff. She knows that Sara knows about their money troubles, they’re all more than aware of them. It’s so selfish for Sara to act otherwise for her own gain.

“What’s that supposed to mean? You’re talking as if partying is all I do.” Sara frowns, looking at Sara with a hurt expression but Felicity just finds herself shrugging her shoulders. Sara scoffs, shaking her head disbelievingly. “You know what Felicity? That is so unfair. We can’t all be super geniuses like you.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.” Felicity counters, her voice softer, and Sara raises a dubious eyebrow.

“Well then what did you mean?”

“Just that I wish you would be slightly more sensitive to our parents’ struggles and be aware of the power that you yield over Quentin.” Felicity explains in what she hopes is a diplomatic tone but Sara just scoffs again.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I should be less ‘energetic’, shouldn’t I? Isn’t that what your new BFF Oliver Queen said? Or what about Helena? What did she say? Oh that’s right, I have no direction in life. Is that what you mean about my partying?” Sara asks, her voice getting louder and more passionate and she throws her arms in the arm as she glares at her sister.

“Hey, you know I don’t agree with them.” Felicity frowns confusedly, reaching out towards Sara but the older girl just moves out of reach with a shake of her head.

“Oh do I? Because ever since you got back and Laurel and Caitlin left again, you’ve been ignoring me. I think they got in your head.” Sara states bitterly, staring Felicity down and that makes the younger girl frown.

She hasn’t intentionally been ignoring Sara but she’s had a lot going on.

“I’ve had school stuff to do, Sara. It wasn’t intentional if I ignored you. I just have to get this work done or I won’t graduate.” She tries to explain but Sara just shakes her head.

“Well I’m sorry that I am such a disappointment to you, baby sister.”

“Sara! That’s not what I…” Felicity tries to explain but Sara is already flying out of the seat and storming out the room, leaving Felicity alone to turn back to the camera with a frown. “What even just _happened?”_

* * *

Sara continues to ignore her despite Felicity’s numerous attempts to make it up to her for the next week and then two days before New Year, she packs up her car and drives it down to Vegas for her partying session with her friends.

She refuses to answer any of Felicity’s calls or texts and Felicity seriously doesn’t know what she can do but ignore it and wait for Sara to blow off enough steam partying that she forgets about it, or at least forgives.

She prays that this is just one of those sibling things and that it will blow over because she really has done all she can do without driving up to Vegas herself and forcing Sara to listen.

And Felicity really doesn’t have time for that because she’s getting ready to head to her next independent study shadowing in Starling City.

“Dr Wells set it up and I for one, am really excited about this. He happens to have a friend in the city who I can apartment sit for so I’m not even paying rent whilst I’m there and the company seems really revolutionary with what it’s doing.” Felicity explains to Caitlin, back for New Year, in front of the camera proudly.

“What did you say the name of the company was again?” Caitlin questions with a frown and Felicity smiles.

“Oh, Queen Consolidated.”

“Felicity.” Caitlin states plainly, looking at Felicity with that look that tells her she’s missed something very obvious.

“What?”

“Has this argument with Sara made you lose all your memory?” Caitlin laughs sarcastically but Felicity just continues to frown, looking at Caitlin confusedly. Her best friend sighs with an amused shake of her head. “ _Queen_ Consolidated? That’s Oliver Queen’s company.”

“It is? Oh frack, it is! How did I not see that when I agreed?” Felicity freezes, her eyes widening as it dawns on her.

That is not what she wants to hear right now.

Oh lord.

“I don’t know. It’s right there in the name.” Caitlin smirks with a look to the camera but Felicity is far too busy freaking out to reprimand her for her teasing.

“Oh good lord, he’s going to think that I’m stalking him!” Felicity cries with a groan. She really doesn’t want to put Oliver out, especially not at his own company, it would be totally unfair of her.

“You are the one who said you didn’t know how to feel about him leaving so soon after you gave him the letter.” Caitlin reminds her with a knowing tilt of her head and Felicity sighs, shaking her head.

“Exactly. I said I didn’t know how to feel. Not that I wanted to see him. What would I even say to him? Thank you for telling me the truth, I’m sorry that I misjudged you?” She frowns, shrugging her shoulders as she shivers at how awful a start that would be. They’re in such an odd place, she and Oliver, and she doesn’t want to make anything awkward for him.

“Well, that might be a start.” Caitlin smirks and Felicity glares.

“Shut up.” She states blankly before groaning. “Do you think I can get out of it?”

“Aren’t you behind on these independent studies anyway?” Caitlin questions and Felicity sighs.

“Ugh, yes.”

“Looks like you’re going to Starling City, bestie.” Caitlin grins, nudging her with her shoulder and Felicity deflates, really not knowing how to feel about this at all.

* * *

Felicity has to admit that Starling City is beautiful.

It has quite the reputation but it’s a city thrumming with life, art, and business.

The apartment she’s sitting for is _incredible._ She’s pretty sure the bathroom is double the size of her bedroom at home and that’s not all. The walls are lined with books and there’s a state of the art technological system that the owner has promised Felicity she can have free range of whilst she’s there. The only stickler is that she has to feed the owner’s two cats but come on… as if that’s actually a deterrent and not also a plus?

Her first day at Queen Consolidated rolls around very quickly and sure enough, she finds herself in a light filled atrium with a school group and a very bubbly tour guide.

“Hi! Felicity Smoak, right? We’re so excited to have you here at Queen Consolidated!” The tour guide grins, physically bouncing on her toes. She’s smaller than Felicity, which is quite the feat, with sharp facial features that she counters with a smile that Felicity thinks could power the entire building.

“Oh hi, yeah that’s me. Oh!” Felicity is baffled as the guide pulls her into a hug and acts as if nothing happened when she pulls back.

“I hope you don’t mind that we’re lumping you with the fourth graders, it’s just that we’ve never had a grad student here before to shadow us and we figured you might like a tour of the facilities before we get you settled.” The guide explains and Felicity smiles, nodding her head.

“Oh no, that’s really nice actually. I’d love to see everything.” She assures her and the guide grins, bouncing once more on her toes.

“Great! Here’s your badge and we’ll get started in just a moment.” She promises, handing Felicity a professionally designed badge with the ID photo she sent over yesterday already printed on it before she heads back over to the front of the group to get started on the tour.

The offices at Queen Consolidated are absolutely incredible. Felicity has never seen facilities like them. Not only is every room lined with the latest equipment and software but the environment is clearly designed to foster creativity and support staff wherever needed whilst maintaining a social and hospitable place to work.

She’s explaining as much to her camera once the guide has shown her to her new office at the end of the tour.

“Even the office they assign to a grad student has a couch and its own coffee station. That pretty much sums up how incredible this place is.” Felicity laughs, feeling almost giddy at the environment she’s somehow found herself in.

“Oh are you shooting already?”

Felicity jumps at the sound of a voice in the doorway and she turns to see the tour guide stood there, a kind smile on her face. Her short dark hair frames her face and she’s dressed fashionably but professionally in a short skirt and blazer, whilst also not aging her too much. She’s clearly young, even younger than Felicity herself, and that shows.

“Yeah, I hope that’s okay. These videos are a part of my thesis project.” Felicity explains as she gestures to the camera and the guide gives a smile as she enters and sits down next to Felicity.

“Oh I know. We researched you thoroughly before we approved your shadowing. The ‘Felicity Smoak Diaries’ are well-known in these halls.” The girl states in a happy voice, clearly not noticing how her words make Felicity freeze.

“They… are?” She questions, suddenly feeling far more self-conscious than she was a moment ago.

“Uh-huh.”

“And you’re all okay with that? Specifically the things I have said about your CEO on them?” She questions with a wince and the tour guide frowns, before she shakes her head with a smile.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that! It’s actually so interesting to see how your interpretation of Ollie… I mean Mr Queen! How your interpretation of Mr Queen is so different to how I… I mean we! Different to how we, _here,_ know him.” She oddly catches herself a few times, shaking herself off before she continues talking and Felicity is a bit too caught up in freaking out over the employees here apparently having seen her videos to notice.

“So, people at Queen Consolidated like Oliver… Mr Queen?” Felicity asks, correcting herself with a shake of her head.

“Of course.” The tour guide states as if it’s the simplest thing in the word but frowns at her phone as it sounds off. “Ugh, got to run. Those kids are causing havoc. Apparently, I was not supposed to let them swim in the rooftop pool, who knew?”

The girl waves at the camera before she rushes off, leaving Felicity frowning. She looks between the door and the camera with a shake of her head and sighs heavily before she starts to talk again. “It really does make more sense that Oliver is like by his staff. Especially seeing as everyone around here seems to smile whenever his name is mentioned. It makes sense too. The facilities here are incredible, and they’re clearly tailored to providing a positive employee experience. The staff are encourage to design their offices however they like. There’s a slide downstairs in the creative department. An actual slide. And Caitlin would lose her mind over the napping pods they have…”

“I’m back! I got you a parking permit just in case you have a visitor or something.” The tour guide reappears, grinning happily and hands over the envelope she’s carrying as she sits back down next to Felicity.

“Oh thank you! About people having seen my videos…”

“Seriously, don’t worry about it.” The girl waves her off once more, clearly trying to reassure her but Felicity can’t really do anything other than worry about it.

“Kind of hard not to. How many people have seen them here?” She presses and the girl frowns as if she’s thinking.

“Oh a lot! …okay a few… okay maybe it’s actually just me but I think they’re wonderful and I’m a really big fan.” The girl winces as her plot unveils and Felicity sighs in relief, regarding the girl with a kind smile.

“Oh. Okay.”

“I’m sorry for lying. I just didn’t want to seem like a crazy fan.” The tour guide winces, shrugging her shoulders nervously with clenched teeth, and Felicity chuckles shaking her head.

“It’s okay. I really didn’t think I had such a thing as fans.”

“Oh, you definitely do.” She states, smiling happily at the camera before she turns back to Felicity and offers her head for her to shake. “You’re really cool, Felicity Smoak. See you around?”

“Definitely. Thank you so much for everything. What did you say your name was again? If you did?” Felicity frowns, realising she never did ask the sweet girl for her name. Her frown only deepens as she freezes, looking towards the camera with a nervous look before she swallows and looks back to Felicity.

“Oh, it’s um… Thea.” She states with a sheepish smile and it’s Felicity turn to freeze as the name rings immediate warning bells in her mind.

“Thea as in Thea Queen?” Felicity questions slowly, wanting to be sure before she freaks out.

“The one and only.” Thea states with a smirk to the camera before smiling at Felicity as she stands and leaves the room. “Seriously, let me know if you need anything, okay?”

“Okay. Thea Queen… also known as Oliver’s sister… who watches my videos? Good lord, is my life _ever_ going to be normal?” Felicity asks as she looks back to the camera.

So much for avoiding Oliver?

* * *

It seems that the answer to her life being normal is no.

Especially not if Thea Queen has anything to do with it.

Felicity has been really enjoying getting to know the girl. John was certainly right, she’s a cool kid and she and Felicity get along famously. Thea is sweet, kind, excitable, and funny. Seeing how much of a wonderful person the girl is just makes Felicity madder when she remembers how she was used by Adrian Chase.

Having said that, it only takes a few days of Felicity’s shadowing at Queen Consolidated for Thea to reveal a darker side of her personality.

Felicity was so sure she’d done an excellent job of avoiding Oliver. His twitter confirmed he was in Gotham when she arrived in Starling and she was hoping that she could continue that avoidance of him.

It’s not that she doesn’t _want_ to see him. It’s just that she has no idea what she would say and she really doesn’t want to make things awkward for him in his own offices.

Her main hope for this lies in the fact that Queen Consolidated is a huge company and the idea of running into the CEO in the hallways seems pretty unlikely, especially if he’s in Gotham.

But like Felicity says, it seems Thea Queen has other plans.

Felicity is just talking to the camera about how she wants to make some friends whilst she’s here and how Thea is her number one candidate, but that she’s nervous seeing as she’s been so rude about her brother on the internet. She really doesn’t know _why_ Thea is so kind to her seeing that, but she is and she supposes that she should just take it for what it is.

And then Thea bursts into her office.

“Oh hi!” Felicity jumps in surprise, smiling as the girl sits down next to her, dressed today into another fashionable professional look, this time in red.

“Hi, I was wondering if I could ask your advice on something?” Thea questions, looking at her with a frown and Felicity freezes, immediately confused.

“Me?” She questions dubiously, totally unsure as to what the extremely accomplished Thea Queen could have to ask Felicity.

“Yes, it’s about grad school.” Thea explains and that calms Felicity slightly. That’s something she can answer.

“Oh, are you thinking about applying?” Felicity questions and Thea chuckles, glancing down at her phone.

“It’s sort of a pre-requisite with my last name.” She shrugs when she’s done checking the device but offers no further elaboration on her initial question.

“Oh so your question is?”

“Do you have any advice about applications?” Thea shakes her head, sending Felicity an apologetic smile and Felicity chuckles affectionately, remembering applying not so fondly.

“Yup. Don’t procrastinate.” She states simply and Thea raises an eyebrow.

“That easy, huh?”

“Uh-huh.” Felicity chuckles, smiling at the young woman. “Well if that’s everything, Dr Wells is in town and we’re having dinner…”

“Oh I actually had another question!” Thea calls, tugging her back down when Felicity goes to stand up and Felicity frowns, looking at Thea curiously.

“You did? About your courses or…?”

“Yes! About my courses!” Thea repeats enthusiastically, making Felicity’s frown only deepen.

“Which course?” Felicity presses, watching as Thea _clearly_ wracks her brain.

“Math!” She suddenly declares and Felicity shakes her head in confusion.

“Math?”

“Yes, math. You’re good at it, right?” Thea asks and Felicity scoffs.

“Good? You are looking at my state’s three-time state-wide Mathletics champion.” She smirks with a fake flick of her hair and Thea chuckles.

“Only three times?” Thea questions with a far more genuine and teasing grin than she had before.

“They wouldn’t let freshmen enter. It was quite the ordeal. Still kind of hurts actually.” Felicity hums, looking to the camera with a small pout.

“So you’re the perfect person to ask!” Thea declares happily and Felicity is still baffled by her clear over-enthusiasm for help with homework.

“Okay, let me just…” Felicity states, standing once more so that she can turn the camera off.

“What are you doing…?” Thea immediately questions oddly, tugging on Felicity’s arm to stop her from reaching it and pulling her back down.

“I don’t think the camera needs to be on for this.” Felicity explains, gesturing to the piece of equipment and Thea frowns, shrugging her shoulders.

“You can just edit it out later, no?” She asks and Felicity shakes her head.

“I mean sure but it would be less work to just…”

“Can’t you just leave it on?” Thea begs, tilting her head and pouting in a way that Felicity’s sure works on her brother all the time. Felicity, however, is made of stronger stuff.

“Are you always this weird?” She finds herself asking, totally baffled by the girl’s behaviour.

“Would that make you leave it on?” Thea asks, clenching her teeth and lifting her shoulders nervously. Felicity frowns, freezing for a moment, before she shakes her head.

“Okay, what is really going on here? And don’t lie to me! I am a master at uncovering mysteries and you won’t slip through my clutches, Thea Queen.” Felicity tells her, narrowing her eyes and pointing her finger in Thea’s face with a mock warning look.

Thea looks suitably nervous, confirming to Felicity that she’s definitely up to something, until her phone sounds off again and she checks it. Her face lights up and she throws her arms above her head. “YES!”

“What? Thea, I really need to get to dinner.”

“Can’t you just talk for a while whilst I go do something really quick? Round this up? Talk about me, I give you permission! Okay, cool! Be back in sec!” Thea babbles, grinning at Felicity before she darts out of the room as quickly as she came in.

Felicity stares at the door in confusion, totally baffled as to what just happened. Shaking her head, she looks back to the camera with a very confused expression. “What just happened? It seems that social awkwardness seems to run in the Queen family? Don’t get me wrong, it seems to manifest itself in very different ways but that was weird? Right?”

She doesn’t really know what to do but she talks for a little longer, filling in the time until she supposes Thea is going to come back.

Suddenly, the door to the office opens once more and Thea reappears but she is dragging a very confused looking Oliver Queen by the arm.

“Thea, what on earth are you- Felicity!”

Felicity feels her stomach sink as she flies to her feet. “Oliver!”

She winces at the sight of him, having successfully avoiding running into him so far. She really doesn’t want to make things awkward but she’s here now and she supposes…

“I… um… I thought you were in Gotham.” She states, having seen as such on his Twitter.

Yes, she stalked him, don’t judge her.

“Oh! I was… but uh… now I’m here.” Oliver states obviously, the two of them shifting awkwardly on their feet.

“I can see that.”

They’re interrupted again as Thea appears _again,_ pushing first Oliver onto the seat and then Felicity next to him. She grins at the camera and slips out the door again, leaving both of them in stunned silence.

“I’m sorry about my sister. She can be a bit…” Oliver finally speaks after a long moment, trailing off as he clearly struggles to think of a word to say.

“Crazy?” Felicity supplies for him and he freezes before he takes a deep breath and clenches his teeth.

“Yes.”

The silence returns and Felicity sits awkwardly, staring straight ahead at the camera, the same as Oliver does next to her. She takes a few glances at him out of the corner of her eye and finds he’s still as devastatingly handsome as he always was, though her softer feelings towards him now allow her to appreciate that more. He’s dressed in a simple shirt and tie but Felicity can see his clearly muscular build beneath it and she swallows thickly, averting her eyes before her thoughts take her somewhere she doesn’t want to be.

“I didn’t mean to surprise you.”

They both speak at the same time, glancing awkwardly at one another before they avert their eyes.

“I’m here shadowing your company…”

“I’m here for a board meeting…”

They speak at the same time again, turning to look at one another and Felicity is surprised to find warmth and kindness in his eyes, rather than the anger she was expecting.

“Oh, I… I know. I hope we’ve been welcoming.” Oliver tells her with a small smile and Felicity takes a deep breath, unable to keep her eyes on him for too long without her mind wandering so she finds herself glancing between he and the camera nervously.

“More than. This place is incredible. Seriously, your offices are something else.” Felicity tells him warmly, unable to stop herself. It’s the truth, she’s been seriously blown away by the facilities and the kindness of the people here.

“We do our best.” Oliver replies awkwardly and Felicity swears she sees a slight blush cross his cheeks. It’s almost… endearing?

“Everyone has been so kind. Honestly, I’ve very much enjoyed my time here so far.” Felicity reassures him, truly not wanting him to feel awkward.

“Even my sister?” He questions with a small chuckle, gesturing back towards the door and Felicity finds herself laughing too.

“In her own way.” She comments, gaining another chuckle from Oliver that softens into a smile with a knowing nod.

“I’m glad.” He tells her, his eyes landing on her with that same intensity as Felicity felt from him last summer. Unlike then, however, Felicity knows exactly what they’re conveying and it’s deep affection.

She’s just not too sure what to do with that information.

“I.. um… I have to go.” Felicity frowns as she gestures to the door and she watches disappointment flash over Oliver’s face before he replaces it with surprise.

“So soon?” He questions nervously and Felicity feels her stomach clench awkwardly.

“I’m having dinner by the bay.” She explains with a nervous smile. She finds herself wishing that she didn’t have to go as she looks up at him and understanding registers over his face.

“Oh! Can I offer you a ride?” He offers kindly and Felicity smiles at the gesture, it’s very sweet.

“Oh no, I like to walk.” She reminds him and she’s startled to see his affectionate smile only grow. 

“I know but um, it’s quite a long way.” He frowns concernedly and Felicity chuckles.

“I’ll be fine, but I really appreciate the offer.” She tells him as he stands and he does too, the two of them facing one another once more.

“Anytime.”

“Well I suppose I’ll see you around?” Felicity questions and Oliver takes a deep breath before he nods.

“Yes.”

“Thank you again.”

Felicity doesn’t know what possesses her to do it, but she reaches out and clasps Oliver’s elbow in her hand for a moment before she immediately regrets it and turns to switch off the camera so that she can head to dinner.

* * *

Felicity finds herself seriously enjoying herself in Starling. Thea, despite her initial meddling, settles down quickly and Felicity finds herself bonding with the sweet girl. She’s always offering to take Felicity to lunch or dinner and she’s always sweet and kind and her teasing of Oliver always makes Felicity laugh.

Being in Starling also means a reunion with John which Felicity is extremely happy about. She’s missed the tall and kind man and being in his hometown means that she gets to meet both his lovely wife, Lyla, and _adorable_ baby twins, JJ and, coincidentally, Sara.

John and Thea also make quite the comedic duo, and Felicity is very grateful to them for making her feel so welcome.

She is surprised, however, at how much she finds herself looking forward to being in the company of Oliver Queen.

It starts by just being impressed of what she sees as him as CEO. She sits in on his meetings with his creative teams as part of her shadowing project and he’s clearly so passionate about what they’re doing at Queen Consolidated. He’s concerned both with creating the best product they can for their customers and with the well-being of his employees and honestly, he’s everything Felicity hopes she will one day be as a CEO of a company.

However, spending time with Thea and John outside of the office, also means spending time with Oliver and seeing him in his own environment, with his friends and family, makes Felicity see him in an entirely different light.

He’s so soft and sweet with Thea, it’s clear how much he loves and cares for her, and he and John have such a teasing relationship that Felicity is even seeing him cracking jokes.

It’s certainly something she would never have expected from the stoic Oliver Queen she met at the Cutter wedding.

That all comes to a head when she’s talking to the camera about finishing her work for one of Dr Wells’ seminar when she decides she needs someone else to emphasis her point.

Thea and John are nowhere to be found and she’s literally wandering the halls when she bumps into Oliver, quite literally.

“Oh hi.”

“Hello, Felicity. Are you alright?” He asks with a small frown. Their conversation has been flowing far more normally in her time here and Felicity finds herself actually very happy to run into the CEO in the halls.

“I was looking for your sister?” She questions, smiling warmly up at him.

“She’s at fencing practice.” Oliver explains and Felicity nods, that explains why she’s also not answering her phone. Thea is usually glued to that thing.

“Fencing?” She questions after his words register and Oliver chuckles with a shrug.

“It’s a hobby. Can I help you with something?” He asks politely, addressing the fact that she’s clearly just wandering around.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to put you out.” She frowns, looking down at the laptop in his hands. He seems to have been heading somewhere intently.

“Oh it’s fine. I was just going to drop this at IT and then I’m all yours.” He tells her with a reassuring smile but Felicity’s eyes are already zooming in on the laptop.

“Is it broken?” She questions, trying to keep the glee from her voice. It’s been far too long since she’s had the chance to have a good look at fixing a computer. 

“I’m having some issues with the internet.” Oliver tells her and Felicity smiles.

“Oh I can help with that. I’m a bit of a tech wiz.” She explains with a sheepish grin and Oliver chuckles.

“So I’ve heard. I don’t want to disturb what you’re doing.” He frowns, gesturing back into her office but Felicity just waves him off. 

“Don’t be silly. A favour for a favour?” She asks, gesturing back to her office and Oliver frowns for a moment before he smiles with a nod.

“Okay.”

It only takes Felicity a few minutes to sort out what’s wrong with Oliver’s internet. It’s a very simple issue but she enjoys fixing it and she grins excitedly as she hands it back to him, demonstrating how his issue is all fixed. “There you are. All sorted.”

“That was so fast! You are quite remarkable.” Oliver states in obvious surprise, his eyebrows rising and Felicity smiles proudly.

“Thank you for remarking on it.” She smirks, shifting her left shoulder forward in a preening manner. Oliver chuckles, smirking at her for a moment before he takes a deep breath, looking back over to the camera which is still rolling.

“So what can I do to help you?” He asks, gesturing to it as they two of them move to sit on her shooting bench.

“I need a partner for costume theatre.” She explains, looking over at him nervously, watching as his amused expression turns to nervous.

“Oh.”

“Is that alright?” Felicity questions, not wanting to make him do something he doesn’t want to.

“Yes. I know that it’s an important part of your videos. Who do you want me to play?” Oliver questions, looking at her with that same affectionate look and Felicity takes a deep breath, looking back at the camera for a moment to collect herself.

“You actually.” She explains, watching his brow furrow.

“And you are going to be…?”

“Me.” She grins sheepishly and Oliver’s brow furrows deeper for a moment before he smirks.

“Well, that’ll make the costumes easier.” He tells her amusedly with a quirked eyebrow and Felicity takes a deep breath, levelling him with a reproachful look.

“There’s this theory about levels mediation in media and marketing that it can be possible for artificiality to remind that audience that what they’re seeing is constructed whilst also adding to their immersion. I thought… Actually, it’s silly.” She explains, trailing off at the end of her explanation as she realises she’s just rambling. She needs to remember that not everyone wants to hear her explain all her academic interests all the time.

Oliver, however, just frowns, clearly thinking through what she’s saying before he smiles. “No, I get it. It’s the idea that dressing as ourselves and acting in costume theatre will remind the audience that it’s not a conversation we would usually have but also adding authenticity through its artificiality.”

Felicity blinks as he so perfectly explains what she was trying to say.

“Have you taken Dr Wells’ seminar on Hypermediation in New Media?” She questions after a moment, her shock evident all over her face.

“No, but I have read her paper. I’m a fan of her work.” Oliver tells her with an affectionate smile but his words only confuse Felicity further.

“You read papers on new media?” She asks, unaware that he would even have a reason to do so. She knows that it’s some Queen Consolidated are interested in, but she always assumed he would just have his teams do that kind of research and report back to him.

“It’s important to be aware of new trends in marketing in order to stay ahead of the game. Plus, it interests me. It’s funny, if you ask Thea, she’ll tell you that the idea of me reading _anything_ ten years ago would have surprised anyone.” Oliver chuckles, looking down at his lap with a chuckle and Felicity smiles too, finding his admission very sweet and endearing.

“Well I’m glad you came around.” She states, drawing his eyes back up to her and she finds herself holding his gaze as she smile. “So you’ll do it?”

“Just give me a second.” He tells her and stands, leaving the office.

“Oh okay.” Felicity frowns, looking back towards the camera, rather confused as to what to do. Oliver returns a few moments later dressed in the original flat cap she saw him in that inspired his costume in her videos. “Wow.”

“I would just like to clear up that the hat is not a personal choice. Thea bought it for me and I wore it to the wedding because she told me it looked good. I regret it now for um… obvious reasons.” He explains as he settles back down next to her, looking at the camera with a nervous expression and Felicity frowns.

If there’s anyone who has anything to regret, it’s her. It’s clear that he’d been nervous to wear the hat now and knowing it was a gift from Thea that she ridiculed him for… it makes her feel awful.

“It doesn’t look bad.” She finds herself reassuring him and she spots a blush cross his cheeks once more.

“Is there a script?” He asks after a long moment and Felicity shakes her head.

“I figured we’d wing it.” She tells him as she reaches for the shirt she uses for herself and tugs it on. It takes a moment but then she remembers what he just said about this being a conversation they wouldn’t usually have and decides to shoot her shot. “Why didn’t you tell Tommy about my videos?”

“Oh, I… well, it wasn’t my place. You’ve kept my secrets after all.” Oliver replies with a frown and Felicity swallows. That’s true, she has, but it still doesn’t mean she wasn’t expecting him to tell Tommy.

“I thought you would tell him.”

“And expose the fact that I meddled?” Oliver poses, raising an eyebrow and Felicity chuckles.

“I think Tommy already knows you meddle in his life.” She tells Oliver with a small smirk, watching as he frowns before he nods slightly.

“Perhaps. Laurel’s moved on too though. You mentioned the last time we spoke that she’s doing well at her new job in Gotham.” He tells her and Felicity takes a deep breath.

“That’s true.”

“And as I’ve mentioned, surely Tommy leaving at such an easy prompt speaks wonders?” Oliver reminds her, speaking of the reasoning he laid out in his letter and Felicity sighs, her initial frustrations with that line of argument coming to the forefront of her mind once more.

“Isn’t finding happiness hard enough? Why is it your job or my job or anyone’s job to test their relationship’s strength?” She questions, hearing herself getting louder as her irritation grows, and Oliver frowns, clearly listening to her and thinking before he speaks again.

“Do you think me telling Tommy that her affections were real and him seeking her out would make Laurel happy? Does she want to go back to him?” He poses, looking at her with such a logical line of thought that Felicity can only sigh.

“I honestly don’t know.”

“It’s possible that us intervening further would hurt them both more, then?” He continues and Felicity sighs, her shoulders deflating.

“Maybe.” She admits, the two of them staring at each other for a long moment before Oliver reaches up and pulls the hat off his head, effectively ending the scene.

“How was that? Was that what you needed?” He asks and Felicity takes a deep breath, swallowing as she takes off her own shirt.

“Um yes, it was great. Thank you.”

“I’m glad. Was that all you needed?” He asks as he reaches for the laptop, standing from the bench.

“Um yes, thank you. Let me know if there’s anything else wrong with the laptop. Or I suppose you could take it to your own IT people.” She frowns, internally admonishing herself. She doesn’t want him to think she’s trying to coerce him into seeing her more.

“I’m sure you were far quicker than any of them. Thank you again and um… I’m glad we cleared the air, or our costume theatre counterparts did.” Oliver tells her with a warm, yet slightly awkward smile, and Felicity freezes as his hand lands on her shoulder in a soft caress.

“Me too.” She manages to reply and then all too soon he’s gone from her office. His warm hand is also gone from her shoulder but the sensation lingers as she hears him disappear down the corridor.

* * *

Thea surprises her twice in the next week. The first is inviting to show her the city with Oliver at the weekend which Felicity finds herself very much looking forward to, and the second is a slightly more sinister affair.

Felicity is shooting in her office, talking about the offices at Queen Consolidated and how amazed she continues to be by them when Thea appears at the door once more. Felicity finds herself slightly concerned when she insists on keeping the camera on but then she admits that she wants to tell the videos her side of the story with Adrian Chase.

It’s certainly not what Felicity was expecting, and she reminds the young woman that she really doesn’t owe her viewers anything, it’s her story to keep to herself if she wants to. Thea, however, admits that she thinks it will help her clear the air and that she feels like she needs to do it.

Felicity remains as soothing of a presence as she can as Thea tells the entire sorry tale. The young woman remains remarkably strong as she recounts the entire thing and the only time she breaks is when she tells Felicity that the thing she’s most ashamed of is what she said to Oliver when Adrian took the money and left. She tells her that part of the reason that she’s so accepting of Felicity is that nothing she’s said on the videos has even come close to the horrible things Thea told Oliver to his face.

Thea is so earnest and forthcoming and Felicity reassures her that nothing she’s disclosed reflects badly on her, just on the man who thought it was okay to prey on and take advantage of a girl as young and sweet as Thea. The two women part with a hug and Felicity feels a feeling of dread fill her stomach as she realises that she’s now going to have to tell Oliver that this just happened.

She knows that Thea’s an adult but she also is aware how protective the CEO is of his baby sister and it would feel wrong to just post it without telling him at the very least.

“Oliver?” She asks as she enters his office, having oddly been waved straight through by his assistant.

“Hello Felicity, what can I do for you?” Oliver greets with a smile and Felicity takes a deep breath.

“I don’t know whether you’re going to like this.” She tells him with a frown, sitting down at the chair in front of his desk when he gestures for her to.

“Oh?” Oliver asks, raising a curious eyebrow at her. There’s also an obvious concern in his expression to and that warms Felicity, grateful to know that he is also looking out for her. 

“Thea just came into my office whilst I was shooting my video. She asked if she could tell my viewers her side of the story with Chase.” Felicity explains, gritting her teeth as she tells him and she watches closely as Oliver’s face registers shock and then shifts to something unreadable.

“I see.” He states simply, his voice shaking slightly, and Felicity frowns.

“I can not upload it, if you want?” She tells him and Oliver sighs, shaking his head.

“No, it’s Thea’s choice. Um… I would appreciate seeing it before it goes live, however, if it’s not too much trouble?” He asks and the look in his eye is so soft that Felicity knows she would struggle to say no, even if she wanted to.

“Of course not. I’ll send it over a secure server.” She promises and Oliver’s concerned expression turns to a smile.

“Thank you. Are we still on for the weekend?” He asks, his eyes conveying hope as he looks up at her when she stands and Felicity finds herself smiling as she nods.

“Yes, I’m looking forward to it.” She tells him truthfully, their eyes meeting as he smiles right back.

“So am I.”

* * *

Felicity has the most incredible weekend. By the time she gets back to the apartment she’s sitting for on Sunday night, she’s practically riding on a high.

She spends Saturday with John, Lyla, and their adorable twins and that’s wonderful enough (especially with Lyla’s incredible chicken cacciatore) but Sunday definitely tops it off.

She meets Oliver and Thea at a brunch spot, dressed in her warmest coat and her flat boots on ready for a day of walking. Thea jumps from her seat excitedly the moment she sees her and Oliver is quick to follow.

As excitable as the young woman is, it’s Oliver that immediately catches Felicity’s eye. She has only ever seen him in his suits but here he is dressed in jeans and a Henley. His coat and scarf to protect him from the January chill are over the back of his chair but wow… he cuts a good shape in a Henley.

“Hi! I’m glad you went with the flat shoes, Ollie’s planned _quite_ the itinerary.” Thea grins, dragging her attention back to the young woman for just a moment. Felicity smiles as she removes her coat, sitting down across from the two siblings and she raises an eyebrow at the CEO.

“It is rather extensive.” Oliver admits with a sheepish smile and Felicity chuckles.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“You _have_ to try the omelettes here, they’re second only to Ollie’s.” Thea insists as she hands Felicity the menu and her words make Felicity frown as she looks over at Oliver.

“You cook?” She questions, raising an eyebrow and Oliver blushes again.

“I dabble.” He tells her with a small shrug.

“He’s modest.” Thea rolls her eyes, smirking at Felicity and the blonde smiles awkwardly. She truly didn’t think anything could make Oliver Queen _more_ attractive, but the idea of him being able to cook?

She doesn’t know why but that is _extremely_ hot.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll look like a pro next to me any day. I’m a disaster in the kitchen. Can’t even scramble eggs.” She covers herself with a cough, smiling at Oliver whose face morphs into an expression of amused surprise.

“Really?” He questions with a grin and Felicity chuckles with a sheepish shake of her head.

“Yup. I’m banned from the kitchen at home.” She admits with a self-deprecating shrug but Oliver just grins at her, shaking his head.

“I never would’ve guessed.” He tells her and Felicity finds herself staring at him again, watching how the light streams in through the window and perfectly frames his face. “Is there something on my face?”

Felicity jumps at being caught, her eyes widening and she internally bashes herself for being so obvious. “Oh no! Sorry. I just… I um… I’m not used to seeing you in such casual clothes.”

“Oh right. I didn’t think a suit was exactly ‘tour of the city’ appropriate.” Oliver states, looking down at his clothes with a shrug.

“You look nice… good… nice… I’ll stop talking now.”

“Please don’t.” Thea grins, and Oliver tells her to be quiet whilst Felicity feels her face warm as it shifts to the red colour of Thea’s coat.

* * *

Thea was right, Oliver’s itinerary is extremely extensive. Felicity feels like she’s walked the entire length of the city twice by the time Oliver helps her out of the car outside her apartment that night.

They got dinner at a spot by the bay and it really was the perfect end to a perfect day. Starling City is a beautiful place but if Felicity is being honest, it was the company of Thea and Oliver that made it such an enjoyable day.

Oliver is the perfect tour guide, pointing out things around the city that he thinks he might appreciated, and Thea is as always, sweet and funny as she dances around the sidewalks, pointing out her favourite spots.

It’s truly one of the best days Felicity has had in a long time and she’s also somehow not surprised that it was spent with the Queens.

She supposes that’s as good of an indicator of a change of perspective as any.

“Have you had a good day?” Oliver asks as he walks her up the stairs that front the apartment building and Felicity smiles.

“The best. Thank you so much for taking the time. I know you’re both busy.” She tells him with a warm smile and she reaches out to grasp his arm warmly. Those small touches have become more and more normal between the two of them and Felicity finds herself not only anticipating them but looking forward to them.

“Never too busy for you. I uh… I meant…” Oliver frowns, backtracking as he clearly doesn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable but Felicity chuckles, shaking her head and squeezing his arm.

“It’s okay, I know what you meant. Thank you again.” She reassures him and they stare at each other for a long moment before Felicity coughs and digs her keys out her purse.

“Bye Felicity!” Thea calls from the car, leaning out of the window to wave enthusiastically with a wide grin on her face.

“Bye Thea.” Felicity calls back with a wave and a grin. That grin softens into an affectionate smile as she looks up at Oliver. “Goodnight Oliver.”

“Goodnight.” Oliver smiles at her and Felicity nods, turning to enter the apartment building.

She tries not to think too hard about how Oliver doesn’t move an inch until the door clicks fully shut behind her.

* * *

The next time Felicity sees Oliver is at the office on Tuesday.

She’s been so busy burying her head into her shadowing that she really doesn’t have the basis for a video so she asks Oliver if it’s acceptable for her to film the interview she has with him as CEO for her shadowing write up. Oliver agrees, even cracking a joke that the videos probably deserve to see a little of his professional side seeing as they’ve had enough of his personal.

“I think that your story’s remarkable. We don’t have to get into it if you don’t want to, I know it’s personal, but your ability to step up and take control when you had to is admirable.” Felicity tells him once they’ve made their way past all the boring and usual question. Oliver frowns at her words, shrugging his shoulders before a small smile crosses his features.

“Losing my father had a profound impact on me and though I would obviously rather he were here, it changed me for the better. Forced me to take responsibility and through that I found that I really do love the work we do here at Queen Consolidated. That helps to get me out of bed and into the office every morning.” He explains simply and Felicity nods. It’s so nice to see someone so clearly passionate about what he does and it’s fascinating to her that it wasn’t even the career he chose for himself.

“And maintaining a good work/life balance?” Felicity asks with a raised eyebrow and a slight teasing tone. She knows Oliver is a workaholic and much of Thea’s teasing revolves around that.

“I’m working on that one.” Oliver tells her with a reproachful look which quickly turns into a smile. “My life… it makes it difficult to be with the people I truly care about. I have to make time for that and _whoever_ I end up with would need to be able to understand the demands of the industry and how important my job is to me.”

He glances over at her as he speaks and Felicity swallows, feeling her chest constrict slightly at his words. “I get that.” 

“I know you do. The work and dedication you put into your videos is a clear demonstration of it.” Oliver smiles, gesturing over to the camera and Felicity frowns.

“My videos? Please, they’re just a pet project.” She shakes him off with a blush but it seems that Oliver doesn’t want to hear it.

“But you’re compelling. You make people want to listen… Go on, talk me through how you make a video.” He prompts and Felicity narrows her eyes.

“I’m supposed to be interviewing you!” She reminds him with an amused and incredulous tone as she leans in towards him but Oliver merely smirks, prompting her to do as he’s asked with a hand movement. “Okay, I start with something that happened recently in my life, say I had dinner with you and Thea last night. Then I’d talk about what happened, maybe re-enact it with costume theatre…”

“There. Creative and thoughtful. Your costume theatre element to your videos demonstrates how carefully you think through engaging with your audience.” Oliver interrupts and Felicity blushes at her words. She’s proud of her videos but she doesn’t think they’re anything _that_ special. “So how would you costume theatre dinner?”

“Well I’d need a scene partner.” Felicity smirks, jumping at the opportunity as she narrows her eyes teasingly at Oliver.

“I don’t think we have to do that.” He states awkwardly, shaking his head but Felicity holds fast with a smile.

“You started this. You can’t back out now.” She reminds him and Oliver sighs, holding his hand out for whichever costume she wants to hand him.

“Fine.”

Bless him, Oliver really does try to do an impression of Thea but he’s clearly uncomfortable and they barely make it through four lines of conversation from dinner last night before Oliver is shaking his head and pulling off the costume.

“I can’t do this.”

“No! Why?” Felicity bemoans and Oliver shakes his head.

“I can’t portray my sister! It’s too weird! I don’t want her to think I’m making fun of her… Sorry! Bad choice of words.” He winces, looking over at her apologetically but Felicity just shakes her head.

“No I get it. It’s not the most objective image of people. I’m trying my best to rectify that.” Felicity reassures him, looking back towards the camera with an awkward sigh. She doesn’t want him to feel like she hasn’t learned anything from their misunderstanding when it’s taught her so much.

“I’m trying to see from other perspectives too.” Oliver tells her quietly from next to her and Felicity smiles, a blush covering her cheeks.

“We could re-enact something else?” Felicity asks, looking up to him with a raised eyebrow and Oliver chuckles, nodding his head as he agrees to indulge her. “I called my stepdad? No, weird. Um, I video chatted with Caitlin? No, also weird. Oh! I had lunch with John!”

Oliver’s eyes light up at her last suggestion in a teasing manner that Felicity’s getting more and more used to seeing. “John? I can do John. He did get to be me after all.”

“Oh but I don’t have a costume for him.” Felicity bemoans with a frown but Oliver just smiles.

“That’s not a problem.”

“It isn’t?”

“Give me a few minutes.” He reassures her and waits for her to nod before he leaves her office. He returns in a few minutes dressed in a bomber style leather jacket that looks remarkably similar to one that Felicity sees John in all the time. Oliver sits down next to her and immediately adjusts his posture so that he takes up more space, looking at Felicity with a smile. “So Miss Felicity, how are you doing here at QC? I hope that friend of mine isn’t giving you too much trouble.”

“Uncanny.” Felicity laughs loudly, unable to stop giggling as Oliver leans into the camera in an almost perfect impersonation of John when he first appeared on her videos.

“Why thank you very much.” Oliver tells her with a laugh and the two of them are still giggling when Thea appears in the door.

“Felicity? Oh! I um… Hi Ollie.” Thea frowns, taking in the scene in front of her before her face morphs into a knowing smirk.

“Speedy. What can we do for you?” Oliver immediately asks but Felicity feels happiness continue to glow through her as he makes no effort to move away from her.

“I was just going to invite Felicity to come to the creative meeting downstairs.” Thea explains and Felicity grins, jumping up from the seat.

“Oh I’d love to!”

“I should probably get back to my desk.” Oliver swallows, taking off the jacket as he stands and Felicity turns back to him with a soft smile.

“Thank you.” She tells him, gesturing towards the camera, and Oliver just shrugs with a smile.

“Anytime.”

* * *

Felicity hates the saying ‘all good things must come to an end’ but she knows that it’s true.

It’s how she characterises her time at QC looking back, but she just wishes it didn’t come to an end in such an earth-shattering way.

And to think the day starts so well…

Oliver enters her office as she’s filming, clearly nervous about something, but Felicity makes him smile as she greets him brightly.

“I have a question for you.” He asks as he sits down next her and Felicity frowns at his unusual wording. It’s the sort of thing she was used to at the start of their acquaintance but not anymore.

“Okay.”

“Do you like Italian food?” Oliver questions and Felicity’s brow furrows at the question.

“Do I like Italian?” She repeats, so confused by the question that she just needs to clarify that.

“Yes.” Oliver confirms with a nod, swallowing thickly as his nerves clearly grow. Felicity feels bad for making him feel more awkward and she adjusts in her seat, straightening her shoulders.

“Um yes. I love Italian food.” She tells him with a small smile and he takes a deep breath, smiling for a moment before he gets nervous once more.

“Would you like to join me for some tonight?” He asks quietly and Felicity smiles.

“With you and Thea?” She asks, thinking of how much she enjoyed dinner last weekend. She’d certainly like to get dinner with the Queen siblings again tonight.

“Actually Thea has a fencing lesson so it would just be… you and me.” Oliver tells her, swallowing nervously and Felicity frowns.

All of a sudden, her phone beeps loudly from where it’s charging on the other side of the room. She tries to ignore it but the beeping continues and she frowns, rushing to look at it so that she can silence it,

“I am so sorry, my phone died earlier… and apparently Caitlin and Laurel have called me eight times each in the past hour?” Felicity frowns down at the device, sending Oliver an apologetic look before she calls her best friend back. “Caitlin, what’s wrong?”

“Oh thank god, Felicity. Where have you been?” Caitlin asks frantically, panic clear in her voice and Felicity frowns as she heads back to the seat.

“My phone died. What’s going on?” She asks as she sits down, a feeling of dread filling her stomach.

“There’s a video of Sara online. Well not a video yet but a website. They say they have a sex tape.” Caitlin tells her quickly and Felicity freezes, totally unable to process what her friend is telling her.

“A sex tape? Of Sara?” She repeats back, vaguely aware of Oliver coughing in surprise next to her.

“There’s a website asking for subscriptions. Felicity, the video… it’s with Adrian.” Caitlin tells her, tension clear in her voice and Felicity blinks in disbelief.

“Adrian _Chase_?” She clarifies, suddenly feeling as if the entire world has just stopped turning.

“I think they’re attempting to get money off the fame she has from your videos. It lists her as ‘YouTube Star Sara Lance’. She’s not picking up her phone either. Do you know what’s going on?” Caitlin presses and Felicity feels sick to her stomach.

“No, but I’m coming home. Now.” She assures Caitlin, hanging up the phone and blinking for a moment before she immediately starts throwing things into her bag.

“Felicity? Are you okay?” Oliver asks and Felicity jumps, honestly having forgotten he was there.

_Good lord, did Sara do this?_

“No… I um… I have to go. Home. Now.” She stutters, trying to think of what else she needs.

“Fe-li-ci-ty. Talk to me. What’s going on? You mentioned Adrian Chase?” Oliver asks, his hand sliding over her shoulder as he tries to get her to stop moving. Felicity freezes, wanting nothing more than to fall into the comfort his hands offer, but she knows she can’t.

She has to go.

“Apparently there’s a website… with Sara and him… oh my lord.” Felicity freezes as she pulls up the website to show an image of Sara and Adrian in bed together, smiling at each other. It only makes Felicity’s nauseous worse and she immediately locks the screen to get it away. “I could’ve prevented this.”

“Felicity, no.” Oliver frowns, rubbing his hand over her back. Felicity closes her eyes for a moment, letting the comfort calm her, but she just shakes her head.

“No. I just… I need to go home and figure out what’s going on.” She states, reaching for her laptop that’s on her desk in front of them.

“Okay. Let me help. You can take the private jet. We’ll have you back home in no time.” Oliver tells her, standing to hold her bag so that she can slip the laptop in more easily.

“You really don’t have to do that.” Felicity tells him with a sigh but Oliver levels her with an insistent look.

“I want to. We’ll organise packing up your stuff and shipping it to you. What matters is that you get home safely and quickly. Let me help you do that.” He assures her and Felicity freezes for a moment, knowing that having him help her is going to get her home far quicker than anything she could organise herself.

“Okay.” She nods, resigning to the fact that she’s actually leaving. That makes her heart sink. She’s had such an incredible time here but she has to go.

At least for a while.

“I’ll have a car waiting downstairs in five minutes.” Oliver tells her, cupping her elbow for a moment before he heads towards the door.

“Oliver?” Felicity calls, grateful as he turns back to look at her with a raised eyebrow. “Thank you.”

Oliver sighs, smiling sadly as he shakes his head. “It’s the least I can do.”

And then he turns and walks away, making Felicity’s heart sink.

* * *

The next few hours are a total blur but Felicity finds herself sat in the living room talking to the camera to calm herself down. It’s not that she wants to document this on the Internet particularly but over the months, letting her feelings out to the camera has become one of the easiest ways to calm herself down.

Sara isn’t answering her phone and hasn’t been all day. Caitlin and Laurel are lamenting similar problems and Felicity is slowly losing her mind with both worry and anger.

Finally the front door opens and Sara’s voice sounds as she yells goodbye to her friend.

“Where have you been?” Felicity asks, her voice sharp and harsh as shock crosses Sara’s face. Her chin sets after a moment though and she shrugs her shoulders.

“Out. Who are you? Dad?” She answers dismissively, stepping into the room as she crosses her arms over her chest.

“No, but I’ve been trying to call you all day.” Felicity tells her, gesturing to the other end of the bench for her to sit down and Sara huffs but does so.

“Oh, my phone’s off. I thought you were in Starling City for another month.” The older sister frowns, looking at Felicity with a dubious look. Felicity feels her stomach twist angrily, how can Sara be so calm right now?

“I’m supposed to be, but did you really think I wouldn’t come back here to try and talk you out of this?” She implores with a frown and that has Sara freezing, frowning in confusion as she turns back to look at her.

“Out of what? You’re not making any sense, Felicity.” Sara asks, her voice softer as she tilts her head but Felicity just reaches for her phone and hands it over with a scoff.

“This. I know you don’t really care about stuff like this but this could have a serious impact on your future, Sara.” Felicity tries to explain but she stops in her tracks when Sara freezes, staring down at the screen with wide eyes.

“What the hell is this?” Sara asks, her eyes locked on the screen and Felicity frowns.

“Wait. Did you not know about this?” She questions slowly, that thought truly never have even entered her mind.

“No. I made the tape, _obviously,_ but I’m not this stupid. What the hell? Can you take this down?” Sara asks, panic entering her voice as she thrusts the phone back into Felicity’s hands.

Felicity flails, truly having not have thought of that as a possibility.

“I can try?” She frowns, reaching for her laptop and pulling the website up on it so that she can start to trace where it’s coming from.

“Oh my god. This goes live in two days?” Sara screams and Felicity winces, looking back at her sister who is getting whiter in the face by the second.

“Yeah.”

“And people are paying for it?” Sara questions, still staring down at her own phone where Felicity supposes she’s pulled it up for herself.

“Yes.” Felicity confirms, her heart racing.

She really thought this would be as simple as talking Sara into taking the website down. She never thought for a moment that there was anything more nefarious at play.

Turns out she was wrong.

“God, I think I’m going to be sick.” Sara groans, throwing her own phone to the floor and Felicity takes a deep breath, continuing to type as she looks up from her laptop.

“Sara, what the hell happened? I didn’t even know you knew Adrian Chase?” She questions, gaining Sara’s attention and she watches as her sister heaves a heavy sigh.

“I met him in Vegas. I was mad at you for our argument, and I was mad at him for ditching you. I thought I could play him at his own game. Everyone always says that I’m good at breaking hearts.” Sara states simply with a shrug and Felicity’s expression softens. If they hadn’t argued….

“And the tape?” She questions, gritting her teeth. It’s clear that Sara never meant for this to happen and she doesn’t want to force her into discussing it but Felicity needs to know the full story.

“I thought it’d be funny. I never meant for it to be released online. Can you take it down?” Her sister asks, gesturing to the laptop and Felicity sighs, shaking her head.

“Whoever is running the website is pinging their IP address off about fifty different servers. It’s going to take a while.” Felicity explains with a wince, her heart sinking as she realises how much work this is going to take. She’s not sure she’ll get there in time but she has to try.

“We only have two days!” Sara implores and Felicity sighs, tugging her hairband off her wrist and throwing her hair up so it’s off her face.

“I’m trying, Sara. I promise.” She tells her sister, watching as her sister deflates at her words, tears swimming in her eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

“Hey, no. This is not your fault. We’ll get it down, okay?” Felicity promises, even though she doesn’t even believe her own words. She reaches across to hold Sara’s hand and her sister takes a deep breath, nodding her head.

Those seem to be famous last words.

Felicity doesn’t move from in front of her computer for the next forty-eight hours. Laurel flies in from Gotham to try and help, seeing what she can do from a legal perspective, and they end up having to loop Quentin in, who as the police captain helps Laurel see if they have a leg to stand on in the legalities.

Sara is far quieter than Felicity has ever seen her usually rambunctious sister. She doesn’t crack a joke, doesn’t tease Felicity or Laurel, she just sits in the armchair in the living room.

She looks so small like that, legs curled up into her chest and head resting on her knees. They’re all trying their best to not let Donna cotton on as to what’s going on. Whilst they all know that she loves them all and would be devastated, her chaotic presence would only stem their productivity and that’s the last thing they need on a time crunch.

They ply themselves full of coffee and soldier on, though their efforts seem more and more fruitless by the hour.

The chain of IP addresses Felicity is chasing appears to only be getting longer and longer and Laurel and Quentin are having no luck either; it seems that they have no concrete evidence of Sara not consenting to the porn company purchasing the rights to the video and therefore, there’s little that can be done.

It breaks Felicity’s heart to see Sara become more and more resigned to what’s about to happen. She admits to having made a lot of stupid mistakes in the past but it’s just that this time, someone else beat her at her own game. Felicity knows Adrian Chase is a master manipulator, she just wishes she and Sara hadn’t been arguing and then all of this could have probably been avoided.

Then somehow, like a miracle as the clouds that have been hanging over the house part and the sun shines through, the website, its countdown, and all the subscribers disappear just two hours before the video is supposed to go live.

It wasn’t Felicity, she was still chasing IP addresses, and it wasn’t Laurel and Quentin, who had exhausted all of their contacts.

Felicity has no idea who it was, but she can only be exceedingly grateful.

She says as much on her videos, pulling an extremely relieved Sara into a hug and kissing her temple.

Life returns sort of to normal from there on out. Laurel sticks around for a couple of weeks, working remotely so that they can all keep an eye on Sara and cheer her up as the semester starts to draw to a close.

For Felicity, that means work and a lot of it.

She writes her final piece for her shadowing of Queen Consolidated and then it’s time to get started on her thesis, which means she needs to figure out what she’s actually doing for that.

She heads to talk to Dr Wells and ends up having a bit of a breakdown in his office but the two of them come to a creative and very satisfactory (for Felicity) conclusion.

“So, I’m going to take the first chapter to discuss what I learnt from my time shadowing at STAR Labs, Palmer Technologies, and Queen Consolidated, but then I am going to lay out a business plan as if I were using the videos as a launchpad for my company.” Felicity explains to both Caitlin and the camera a few days later. Her best friend is on the other end of the phone but Felicity’s put her on loudspeaker as her viewers have been bemoaning the loss of Caitlin in her comment section.

“But you don’t have a company?” Caitlin states inquisitively and Felicity chuckles.

“No, it would be a fictional one though. I’d crunch all the numbers and write up objectives for now and the future. ‘Save the world’ as number one, of course.” Felicity elaborates with a smirk, preening her shoulder towards the camera.

“Of course.” Caitlin’s laugh down the phone cheers her up considerably, but they’re interrupting by a knock at the door.

“Felicity?”

“Sara, hey.” Felicity smiles widely at her sister, inviting her inside. “Caitlin, I’ll call you back.”

“Are you filming?” Sara asks as she steps fully into the room, looking towards the camera slightly nervously as she sits down next to Felicity.

“Yeah, but I can turn it off.” Felicity reassures her, reaching to do so but Sara grasps her arm, shaking her head.

“No, don’t. You will probably want this on there.” Sara states, squaring her shoulders as she looks towards the lens.

“Okay?” Felicity frowns, looking concernedly at her sister. She knows there’s something going on here that she doesn’t fully understand but she doesn’t want to make Sara feel uncomfortable right now so she just rolls with it.

“I want to apologise to Oliver.”

That was the _last_ thing Felicity expected to come out of Sara’s mouth.

Her sister has been quite insistent on her dislike of their ‘summer friends’ before and she knows that all the events of last July, August and September are ones that Sara is very happy to put behind them.

“Oliver Queen?” Felicity presses to elaborate, earning herself a reproachful look from her sister.

“Yes. I judged him, quite unfairly, and I know that there’s far more to him than perhaps first meets the eye.” Sara states diplomatically straight into the camera as if she’s talking straight to him and Felicity frowns.

“Okay. Well I don’t think he’s watching these, Sara.” She tells her sister with her eyes wide which turns Sara attention back to her.

“Oh, he is.”

“Why the sudden change of heart?” Felicity asks, ignoring her sister’s comment.

“Because it was him.” Sara states simply, looking back to the camera with a small smile.

“What was?”

“He took the website down.” Sara elaborates and Felicity freezes at the news, totally unable to process that.

“He… did? How do you know that?” Felicity asks, totally baffled as to how _Sara_ has that information of all people.

“I got a message request from Thea Queen on Facebook.” She explains as she opens something on her phone before handing it to Felicity. “Here.”

_Dear Sara,_

_I know that I am probably the last person you want to hear from right now but there is something I feel you deserve to know. As I’m sure you’re aware, my brother and I have a history with Adrian Chase, and, when we learned of your situation, we both wanted to do all we could to help. I know from your sister’s videos that you were attempting to take the website down from both a technological and legal standpoint and my brother had the teams here at Queen Consolidated doing the same. In the end, the only thing we could think of to do to stop the video going live was for Oliver to buy up the porn company’s shares, giving him legal rights to the tape which has subsequently been destroyed in all possible ways._

_I’m not telling you this to ask for any form of thanks or gratitude, merely to make you aware of the full facts of what I know from experience will be an integral saga of your life, for better or for worse. You deserve to know the truth, and to be reassured that there is no way anyone is getting any version of that video, ever._

_Please give your sister my love and tell her that my brother and I hope to see her again very soon._

“Wow. I… I don’t know what to say.” Felicity states slowly as she finishes reading, a thousand thoughts flying around her head.

“I’m glad she reached out. It feels good to know that no one is ever going to see that, and I thought you should know too in case you want to do anything about it.” Sara tells Felicity with a small smile and that makes the younger sister frown.

“Do anything…? We should really thank him but I don’t know what you mean…” Felicity starts and then she catches Sara staring at her with a raised eyebrow. “Oh come on, this isn’t about _me.”_

“Sure it isn’t. It totally makes sense that he would be losing his mind over me being ruined if I wasn’t your sister.” Sara scoffs, looking to the camera with a smirk. Whilst Felicity is glad to see her sister teasing again, she’s not too sure about that line of thought.

“I think he definitely would! He’s a good guy and well, they do have history with…”

“Sure, Felicity.” Sara interrupts, leaning over to kiss her cheek before she stands and heads for the door.

“Sara, are you sure you want me to post all of this?” Felicity asks her before she can leave and Sara turns back to look at her. She looks between Felicity and the camera for a moment before she smiles and nods her head.

“Yeah.”

* * *

Felicity doesn’t know what to think of all of this.

Sara (and Caitlin who lets her know her thoughts in an _extensive_ videocall) are very much of the opinion that Oliver’s affection for Felicity had something to do with his involvement in taking down the website.

But if it did, why go to such lengths to hide that from Felicity?

If he didn’t _want_ her to know, surely that speaks to just not wanting Adrian Chase to cause anyone more pain?

Plus there’s the fact that she hasn’t heard from him _or_ Thea since he handed her into his car to whisk her away to the airport. She knows that he was probably keeping his distance to let her cope with what was going on but it’s been weeks since it all calmed down now and she’s heard nothing.

She doesn’t really know where they stand. Are they friends? More? Was she just the girl shadowing his company that he felt obligated to be nice to?

She really doesn’t know what to think.

However, it seems that life works in funny ways. Her mother always says ‘what goes around, comes around’ and it seems that she’s right because a distraction arrives in the form of Tommy Merlyn once again gracing their doorstep.

It turns out that Oliver not only bought out the company to stop Sara’s video being released, but he also told Tommy about intervening and convincing him to leave town.

…which lead Tommy to finding out about Felicity’s videos and being able to see the whole thing play out.

It seems like there was a lot they didn’t know about Tommy Merlyn too. He was apparently in a bit of an identity crisis when he rented Netherfield last summer and Helena and Oliver were supposed to get him back on track and back into med school at the request of his father. That backfired, however, and it all led to Tommy realising that being a doctor was always his father’s hope, not his, and he finally officially dropped out of med school. He apologises profusely to Laurel for allowing himself to be so easily swayed by his sister and friend and Felicity is extremely proud of her sister for sticking to her morals and telling him that he has a lot of making up to do.

She, however, agrees to ‘see’ him upon her imminent return to Gotham, where it turns out that Tommy has finally settled and is concentrating on humanitarian causes.

It sends their mother into a happy daze which Felicity finds herself actually happy to see after all the gloom the house has been shrouded in since she returned from Starling City.

But with Laurel gone back to Gotham and Sara concentrating on bouncing back from this saga, that leaves Felicity alone with her thoughts once more.

And those thoughts keep bouncing back to Oliver Queen.

He was clearly trying to ask her to dinner that day. For a date? Is that what he wanted? What if his feelings have changed since the fall?

Felicity knows that hers certainly have. She knows deep in her heart that there’s no way she would have ever said no to that request if it was meant to be a date.

Does she love Oliver Queen?

She thinks that she really, _really,_ might.

It’s odd. She had no idea that her feelings could be changed so quickly and so drastically but here she is. She now knows Oliver Queen to be one of the kindest and most intelligent people that she knows and yes, she thinks that she very much is in love with him.

Then, she supposes, she should probably do something about that.

 _Never know if you don’t try,_ she can hear Caitlin in her head.

She would never change the age of technology or the freedoms she has compared to the women of the past for anything, but, as she picks up the phone to call Oliver, she finds herself really wishing she wasn’t such a ‘modern woman’ and this wasn’t on her.

“Okay, you can do this, Smoak. Just a phone call. Totally fine.”

* * *

Oliver sighs as he makes his way out of his last meeting of the day.

The past few weeks have been a lot.

He’s so glad that he could do something to stop that video being released but since then, he’s been unable to get Felicity out of his head.

Which he supposes isn’t all that different from when she was here shadowing QC, but then at the very least he could go and see her and talk to her.

Now she’s halfway across the country and he has no idea where they stand.

Her videos are both a blessing and a curse. It means he gets to see her, to know that she’s okay without having to shove himself into her life in a way that he’s not sure she’d be comfortable with. But then also, he finds himself pouring over them, trying to find any indication that her feelings towards him may have changed to something slightly… warmer.

He heads back to his office, grateful to be done for the day, and settles into his seat, just as his laptop alerts him that Felicity has uploaded a new video.

(Yes, he set a reminder for her upload times… don’t judge him).

He never could have expected what he sees.

The video starts with Felicity alone in her bedroom, chatting away to the camera as she usually does. Oliver isn’t even particularly paying attention to what she’s saying but more the way her blonde hair curls around her face and her eyes sparkle beneath her glasses as she gets passionate about what she’s talking about.

He’s baffled, however, when his mother suddenly bursts into the frame.

Felicity whirls around in her seat, flying to her feet in shock and surprise.

“Mrs Queen!” She exclaims, obviously totally shocked to see Oliver’s mother in her bedroom of all places.

“Miss Smoak. I’d say it’s a delight to see you but I’m sure you’re aware of why I’m here and therefore know that not to be the truth.” Moira comments as she settles down on the bench in front of the camera. Oliver feels his stomach twist uncomfortably at the sight.

He doesn’t want his mother anywhere near Felicity. She’s far too sweet of a soul to be objected to that.

“I cannot say I do know why you’re here. In my house?” Felicity frowns as she sits down next to her on the bench, glancing nervously between the camera and Moira. Despite his anger at his mother, the sight of Felicity remaining steadfast makes Oliver smile.

“Don’t play dumb with me, young lady. I know that internet show of yours seems to think that you are all very sweet and innocent but I can see straight through your act.” Moira huffs, gesturing to the camera before she turns to look at Felicity with narrowed eyes.

“How do you…?” Felicity starts, looking at the camera before her eyes spark and she heaves a long sigh. “Helena. She’s been feeding back to you.”

Oliver freezes, he knew that Helena and his mother are close but he hadn’t imagined his friend’s sister was actually feeding information back to Moira.

“Of course. I make sure that I’m in the know about my son’s life.” His mother states simply before she dusts off invisible lint from her pants and turns back to Felicity with a pursed lip. “That’s not what I’m here to discuss.”

“And what is it that are here to talk about?” Felicity asks, clearly still entirely baffled by this turn of events. Oliver feels awful, with all she’s been through recently, the last thing she needs is his mother turning up to torment her.

“You, Felicity Smoak, and your attempts to seduce my son. You should know that it can never happen.” Moira states clearly, her eyes narrowing and Oliver scoffs along with Felicity on his screen.

He’s going to _have_ to speak to his mother _again_ once this is all said and done.

“Seduce him? Please.” Felicity rolls her eyes, shaking her head with an amused chuckle.

“I have seen your little videos from when you were at Queen Consolidated. I know your game and I have to tell you that it’s sad and ridiculous and like I said, it can never happen. You would destroy him.”

“Destroy him? I’m not capable of that.” Felicity jokes lightly and Oliver is glad to see that it ruffles his mother considerably.

“You’re already causing issues. Oliver hasn’t taken a day off work since his father died and then he disappears for three whole days to sort out your sister’s scandal.” Moira counters, raising an eyebrow and Oliver feels awful as he watches Felicity deflate.

“I didn’t ask him to do that.” She states quickly, with far less of the bite she’d been speaking with before.

“Nonetheless, he did and if this sort of behaviour continues, I might have to reconsider my investment in Queen Consolidated.” His mother states simply and Oliver feels his anger flare once more.

Luckily, it appears Felicity has him covered.

“You would pull your investment from your late husband’s company, which is do very well, over the fact that your estranged son might be in love with a girl you don’t approve of? I don’t mean to tell you what to do, but that doesn’t sound like good business sense to me.”

It is _glorious_ to see his mother’s face go from shocked to outraged to ashamed and Oliver grins as Felicity chances a small little prideful smirk to the camera.

“I am merely trying to do what’s best for him.” Moira states simply as she purses her lips and reaches to tuck a perfect curl behind her ear.

“Well, if there’s anything I’ve learnt over the past year, it’s that you can’t dictate what people do. Oliver is in charge of his own life, and I am in charge of my own. The same goes for Helena, and Tommy, and my sisters, by the way.” Felicity explains, shaking her head with an irritated scoff as she comes to an end.

“But you are not currently in a relationship with my son?” Moira questions, looking at Felicity blankly.

Oliver doesn’t know how to feel as Felicity’s shoulders visibly deflate at the question and she answers, “No, I am not.”

“And will you promise to not enter into one?”

“I will make no such promise.” Felicity scoffs with a bitter tone, making Oliver’s heart skip.

What does she mean by _that?_

“Then I suppose I am done here.”

“Let me see you out.”

He watches to the end as Felicity turns back to the camera just before she leaves the room after his mother, her look one of clear irritation and disbelief.

Oliver sighs, heavily as he leans back in his chair.

There is a _lot_ there.

He really needs to talk to his mother about meddling in his affairs, for one, and he needs to make Helena very aware that he has no interest in being acquainted with her if she’s just going to act as a mole for his mother.

His mind, however, doesn’t linger on how angry he is because there’s another feeling that takes over.

_Hope._

Felicity wouldn’t promise his mother that she would never enter into a relationship with him. That has to mean something, right?

Maybe her feelings have changed, maybe she’s warmed to him. He knows that she no longer hates him, else she never would have subjected herself to spending so much time with him whilst she was here in Starling… but maybe this is an indication that her feelings might have developed into something deeper?

Perhaps something near the intense affection he feels for her?

The love?

Oliver shakes his head, reaching for his personal phone.

He keeps it switched off during the day, his closest friends know how to reach him if there’s an emergency and it does wonders for his productivity.

He already has a message from Thea freaking out over Felicity’s video but he ignores it in favour of a notification that apparently didn’t come through from two days previous.

A voicemail.

He’s going to have to talk to his phone provider about this because it’s been an issue in the past.

He’s confused as to who it could be from though, because if it were Thea or John or Tommy, they would’ve let him know by now what it was about. He’s heard no such thing from any of them.

Frowning deeply, he opens the voicemail and his frown only deepens as he recognises the voice.

_Um, hi Oliver, it’s Felicity. I don’t really know why I’m calling or what I want to say. I don’t even really know why I did this but, if you get this, give me a call back? I’d love to chat, if you want to, of course. Okay, I’m going to stop talking now. Bye._

Oliver sits frozen in his seat.

She _called_ him, she wants to chat?

What does that mean?

This was two days ago, was that before or after his mother ceremoniously shoved her way into Felicity’s room and insulted her awfully? If it was before, would that have changed her mind about wanting to talk with him?

He supposes there’s only one way to know and he wants to make sure he does it right.

Shooting Thea a text to let her know he’s going out of town, he charters the private jet to head back to a certain small town.

* * *

Felicity doesn’t hear back from Oliver for days.

With nothing else other than schoolwork to concentrate her mind on, she’s going slightly stir-crazy. She supposes the fact that he hasn’t called her back says it all really and that he’s not interested but she still can’t help but let her mind wander.

Which is why Caitlin showing up at her doorstep with ice cream, a cheesy movie, and a promise of ordering takeout on a rare few days off from work is totally the distraction Felicity needs.

Caitlin insists on shooting a video, reminding Felicity that she’s dedicated to her posting schedule now and Felicity sighs, sitting down on the bench and allowing her best friend to grill her.

“Fine! Yes, I’m disappointed I didn’t hear from Oliver. Is that what you want to hear?” Felicity finally admits after a few minutes of prodding, her shoulders deflating as she finally admits aloud what she’s been refusing to tell herself.

“Felicity…” Caitlin sighs, remorse clear on her face as she reaches out to hug her friend. Felicity sighs, leaning back into the feeling of Caitlin’s arms around her waist.

“No, it’s fine. It’s not like he owes me anything, he’s already done so much and I couldn’t blame him if he didn’t want anything to do with me.” She sighs with a shrugs, her hands covering Caitlin’s on her stomach as her tone softens sadly.

“It hasn’t been that long. You know he has trouble expressing himself.” Caitlin offers as an explanation, leaning her head on her shoulder and Felicity sighs, truly grateful for her attempt to cheer her up but she knows what’s true in her heart.

“It doesn’t take four days to call someone back. It’s fine. He deserved more from me anyway.” She explains with a sad shrug, dejectedly turning her head to look at her bestie.

“More?” Caitlin asks, raising an eyebrow, and Felicity sighs as she thinks it through.

“Kindness, consideration, less Judgey Mc-Judge Face.” Felicity winces as she thinks about how awful she was to him when they first met. Caitlin chuckles and pokes Felicity in her side.

“Hey, you deserved more from him too, and it’s not like things haven’t changed significantly since then.” She tries but Felicity just shrugs.

“I guess not that much.” She answers with a dejected look to the camera.

Her pity party is interrupted by the loud sound of the doorbell ringing.

“That’ll be the Chinese.” Caitlin grins excitedly, unentangling herself from Felicity as she moves to stand.

“Thank goodness, I need to eat my feelings.” Felicity grins up at her best friend who chuckles, grabbing her purse as she heads to the door.

“I’ll grab it. You wrap up, if you want to.” Caitlin tells her, gesturing to the camera and Felicity smiles after her for a moment before she turns back to her tripod.

“Thank goodness for besties and cheesy movies. I really don’t know what I would do without Caitlin. I… I guess I was just hoping for one more second chance, but those are hard to come by and I suppose I’ve used all mine up.” Felicity explains to the camera with a small sigh and she reaches for her purse when she hears her door open again, assuming it’s Caitlin back. “Do you need a tip?”

“Felicity?”

She jumps at the very decidedly _masculine_ voice.

The exact masculine voice she’s been wanting to hear over the phone all week.

“Oh! Oliver!” She cries in surprise, taking in the sight of him in her _very messy_ childhood bedroom. It’s extremely overwhelming as she has no idea what to say. Which is probably why the next thing out of her mouth is something she immediately regrets. “I um… I was expecting Chinese.”

Her words, at the very least, make Oliver chuckle and Felicity feels her stomach twist at the sight and sound. She’s missed it, _a lot,_ she didn’t know how much until now. “Nope, just me. You’re filming again.”

He comments on the camera as they sit back down and Felicity winces, feeling awful that all their interactions seem to have played out on her videos. “I swear I don’t have it on all the time. You just appear to have impeccable timing.”

“Perhaps. I can’t say I mind your videos, they’ve enlightened me to a lot over the past months.” Oliver tells her warmly, his eyes locked on her as he speaks. The intensity of his bright blue eyes are softened by the warm look they carry and Felicity blushes, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear. “Caitlin is a surprise?”

“She came to cheer me up.” Felicity explains quickly, though regrets it as Oliver’s brow furrows.

“You needed cheering?” He asks concernedly and it’s so sweet and endearing that Felicity feels like she could just melt where she’s sat.

“I um… maybe?”

“You called me.” Oliver finally states and Felicity takes a deep breath, nodding her head.

“I left a message.” She counters, swallowing thickly. She doesn’t know what to think or how she feels but she knows that his presence next to her seems to be exactly what she’s been needing these past few weeks.

A feeling of calm has settled over her ever since he entered the room and she doesn’t know what to say about it.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. I’m having issues with my phone and…” Oliver starts to explain and Felicity’s eyes immediately widen in fear.

“Oh my goodness, you really don’t have to worry about it. I… I didn’t mean for you to come here. I just…” She rambles quickly, feeling awful if she’s dragged him all the way here from Starling City just to explain why he didn’t answer her voicemail.

“I needed to come.” Oliver states simply, his eyes softening as he looks at her and Felicity frowns.

“You did?”

“I wanted to see your face when I asked you why you called me.” He tells her and Felicity sighs, slowly shaking her head.

“I… I don’t know.” She states honestly, because she truly doesn’t. That phone call was made in a moment of weakness when she was only just coming to accept how deep her feelings for Oliver run. It’s not that she regrets it, but she can’t give him a straight answer as to why she did it when even she doesn’t know.

“Felicity, I’m quite confused.” Oliver comments with a frown and Felicity lets out a soft snort.

“Line forms behind me?” She asks gently with a laugh and Oliver’s lips quirk for a moment before a nervous frown covers his face once more.

“If this is about thanking me for what I did regarding the situation with Sara, you owe me no thanks.” He tells her simply and Felicity shakes her head.

“My family are all so appreciative for what you did. It was unrepayable.” She implores him, the magnitude of his actions weighing on her even now.

“Felicity, you must know that I did it for you.” Oliver replies with some candour and honesty that Felicity freezes just for a moment before warmth flows through her quickly.

“For me?” She questions softly and Oliver nods, their gazes lingering for a moment before Oliver frowns, glancing down at the floor and then back up to her eyes.

“You said to my mother that you wouldn’t promise to not enter into a relationship with me.” He repeats back to her and Felicity takes a deep breath, nodding her head.

“I did.”

“That added to the confusion.” He admits and Felicity chuckles, nodding her head.

She inches slightly closer to Oliver, making him turn his body more towards her. “Oliver, I don’t want you to think that this is about anything other than you and me. I don’t want to talk to you just to say thank you, although it is thanks you certainly deserve. But I also don’t want you to feel obligated to say anything if your feelings have changed from what you told me last fall. I certainly couldn’t blame you if they have and I…”

“Felicity.” Oliver interrupts her rambling with a chuckle and then suddenly he’s grasping her face in his hands and pulling her towards him. He stops when their faces are mere breathes apart, leaving the final decision to her, but Felicity surges forward, her hands raising to cup his elbows as their lips finally meet in a kiss.

It’s the most magical thing Felicity has ever experienced.

It’s like the life around them freezes and all that remains is the two of them, soft lips pressing against one another as finally, months of tension and miscommunications and mixed feelings all fade into this moment right here.

Oliver’s lips are soft and gentle against her own and it’s over far too soon for Felicity’s liking as they pull away. Their faces remain inches apart as Oliver holds onto her face as he stares into her eyes. “Don’t ask me to say that I don’t love you.”

His voice is low and out of breath but it makes Felicity’s heart clench and she breathes out a laugh. “I love you too.”

“You do?” Oliver asks, his eyes widening in delighted surprise. He looks so hopeful, it’s so sweet, and Felicity smiles, reaching up to pull one of his hands from her face and entwine their fingers.

“Oliver, when I met you, I was so caught up in my own world and how I thought things should be but over the past year, you’ve opened up my heart in a way I didn’t even know was possible and wormed your way in there. I don’t think I could say I don’t love you, even if I wanted to try.” Felicity tells him and it surprises her how easily the words come. It’s the honest truth, she doesn’t want to imagine her life without Oliver in it.

The past few weeks have been hard enough.

“And you don’t?” Oliver asks softly, his other hand slowly dragging his thumb over Felicity’s cheek as she softly strokes his tie with her free hand.

“I don’t. You and me? We’re a mortal lock.“ Felicity states with a smile, gently tugging on his tie and Oliver chuckles, a wide grin spreading across his face.

“I like the sound of that.” He tells her and his smile is infectious as Felicity feels her own spread over her face.

“Me too.” Felicity tells him and then she’s diving back in for another kiss and she forgets all about her camera and Caitlin and Chinese.

* * *

The next week passes in the most delirious sun-filled way imaginable.

Felicity spends most of her time at the hotel Oliver has booked to stay at, seeing as it is devoid of people, and the two of them get to know each other in an entirely new way.

They spend their days talking, telling each other every last thing they don’t yet know, and their nights learning what a new level of pleasure feels like. Felicity learns Oliver Queen’s soul along with his body and she’s very happy to report that it seems to perfectly match her own.

She’s surprised when Oliver asks if he can help her film her video for the week but the opportunity to get him in front of the camera willingly is not one she’s going to pass up on. There’s some very obvious flirting and some _other_ parts she’s going to have to edit out but the conversation soon turns to the future.

“I can only stay here so long before my investors start saying that I am shirking my responsibilities for my own personal indulgences.” Oliver explains to the camera with a sigh and Felicity giggles from her spot next to him, half in his lap.

“I’m the indulgences.” She preens teasingly, leaning her head back against his shoulder and Oliver chuckles affectionately.

“Shh, you.” He laughs, running his fingers across her waist where he knows she’s ticklish and laughing as she squirms. “I need to head back to Starling soon.”

“I know.” Felicity sighs with a soft pout. She’s trying really hard to not turn into that girl who becomes utterly unbearable when she’s separated from her boyfriend but the idea of not seeing Oliver for months after they’ve been attached at the hip for the past week sucks.

“And how long do you have until you finish your degree?” Oliver asks her, making Felicity freeze.

“About six weeks? Which is totally terrifying.” She comments as she looks towards the camera with a sigh. She frowns, however, as Oliver easily lifts her to face him, a nervous look in his eye.

“Well do you think you’d be less scared if you had a job lined up?” He asks, looking at her hopefully and Felicity immediately frowns.

“Are you offering me one?” She questions, having to resist the urge her mouth has to drop open.

“You know I admire what you do and I think you could be an incredible asset at Queen Consolidated. We could build a department around you, I think it would be extremely beneficial to us both. Plus, you’d be in Starling City with me.” Oliver explains sweetly, reaching for her hand as he states the last part and Felicity sighs.

The idea of working at Queen Consolidated is _incredible._ She thinks that Oliver’s company is amazing and he does so much good work there. Plus, the idea of being in the same city as him is perfect but still…

“No.”

“No?”

“Yes.”

“ _Yes?”_

“No! No, no… yes, as in I meant no, no. No.”

“I’m not understanding what’s going on here.” Oliver shakes his head with a confused frown and Felicity chuckles, reaching up to cup his cheek and forcing him to look at her.

“I love you and the past week has been _incredible_ and I think Queen Consolidated is amazing. I want to be with you, but I don’t want to be the girl who dates the boss. Can you understand that?” She explains softly and as clearly as she can, imploring him with her eyes to understand. She doesn’t want him to think she doesn’t appreciate the offer because she truly does, and she knows he wouldn’t make it of he didn’t think she would be an asset to the company.

“I can.” Oliver sighs sadly, turning his head to press a kiss to her palm before he draws her into his arms properly. “So, what will you do?”

“Well, did you see the video when I talked about using the videos as a basis for a start-up as a part of my thesis?” Felicity asks, her fingers running distractedly up his shirt sleeve as she talks and Oliver nods, his brow furrowed in concentration.

“I did. I thought it was quite the ingenious idea.” He tells her with a soft smile and Felicity smiles too, leaning into his embrace for a moment.

“Thank you. Well, it turns out, not everyone watching seemed to get the concept that it was a _fictional_ start-up and quite a few investors have reached out to me.” She explains softly, gesturing to the camera and Oliver smirks as her words register with him.

“Oh, so you’re going to become one of my competitors?” Oliver asks with a raised eyebrow and Felicity grins sheepishly.

“Sort of.”

“Well then I look forward to doing business with you.” Oliver smiles, drawing her into a soft and gentle kiss that leaves Felicity wanting more. “Do you have a name for this company?”

“Smoak Technologies.” Felicity states proudly with a nod to the camera and Oliver grins.

“Sounds perfect.” He chuckles, bending down to softly nuzzle her neck with his nose and Felicity smiles, revelling in the feeling for a moment.

“I was also thinking…” She starts and Oliver hums to indicate that he’s listening. “If I’m going to start up a company that Starling City might be the perfect place to do it.”

“Really?” Oliver questions and Felicity turns to see his eyes filled with such a childlike hope that it makes her stomach flip excitedly.

“Yes. Sound good?” She asks, grinning as a wide smile of his own spreads across his face.

“More than.” He tells her before he dives back in to kiss her and the two of then return to far more pleasurably activities than talking about the future.

Felicity wraps up her videos with her 100th episode, informing all her viewers that it’s not goodbye forever, just for now. She knows the next few months are going to bring a lot of change but she finds herself seriously looking forward to it.

* * *

_1 year later…_

“Felicity? The driver’s here, honey!” Oliver’s voice calls out through the apartment and Felicity takes one last look in the mirror before she smiles and grabs her clutch.

It’s been a whirlwind of a year and it’s so odd to think that she and Oliver are marking their anniversary by attending a gala at which her start-up is being honoured for the revolutionary changes it has made to the technological and web-based market.

She never could’ve imagined it.

She’s so lucky to be so comfortable in her professional life, Smoak Technologies has really hit the ground running and she’s so excited for what the next year will bring.

Her personal life is looking pretty damn good too.

She and Oliver moved in together four months ago, after Felicity realised that in three weeks she had only spent half a night in her own apartment. It was getting ridiculous to be paying rent and utilities in a place she wasn’t even using and the two of them are in such a good place. Felicity has truly never been happier and she knows she has to give Oliver all the credit for that.

Her sisters are also doing incredibly well. Tommy and Laurel are going strong, and Laurel has recently been promoted at her firm. They’re extremely happy in their new lives in Gotham and even Helena has warmed to the idea of having Laurel around.

Sara has found a new friend in Thea and the two young women get on like a house on fire. Sara is so close to finishing her degree and Thea is in her first year of grad school and both are leaving the ugly past and Adrian Chase far behind them.

Caitlin is continuing to absolutely smash it at STAR Labs, having been promoted _twice_ in the past year. She’s practically running the place on her own at this point and Felicity couldn’t be prouder of her bestie.

Felicity’s parents are the same as always but Felicity wouldn’t have them any other way. Her mother squeals down the phone at she and Oliver every week and her father chuckles patiently next to her as he waits to hear the updates Felicity has to tell them.

As for Moira Queen… neither of them have heard from her since she stormed out of Felicity’s bedroom that day and Oliver is very happy about it.

“I’m ready!” Felicity calls as she makes her way through the apartment, finding Oliver stood by the doorway. He freezes when he spots her, looking quite the sight himself in his well-cut suit complete with suspenders and a bow tie.

“Wow.” Oliver comments, taking in Felicity’s floor length green dress and the half-updo she’s managed to work her curls into.

“What?”

“You look gorgeous.” Oliver smiles as she approaches as Felicity smirks as she reaches him, dropping her clutch to the hallway table next to him as she runs her hands up his chest appreciatively.

“You don’t look too bad yourself, Mr Queen.” She comments coyly with a grin and Oliver chuckles.

“We need to go.” He reminds her as he catches her wandering hands in his own. Felicity sighs with a pout, levelling him with a look that usually works to get her way.

“Shame. I think those suspenders would look even better on the bedroom floor.” She tells him softly, rising onto her toes to whisper in his ear before she grasps her clutch and heads towards the door.

“Behave yourself, Smoak.” Oliver growls as he catches up to her with a smirk, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her into his side.

“Hmm, we’ll see whether I can be good _all_ night.” Felicity preens, looking up at him flirtatiously through her eyelashes.

“Oh, as far as I’m concerned, we only have to stay long enough for you to accept your award.” Oliver smirks, stopping her by the door.

“How antisocial of you.” Felicity counters with a chuckle, unable to stop herself from dragging her hand over his chest once more.

“I believe no-one’s ever accused me of being the life of the party.” Oliver comments with a snort and Felicity shrugs.

“Maybe you can make it up to me for that awkward dance the night we met.” Felicity teases, tugging on his jacket and Oliver shakes his head.

“I thought I’d since proven I could sweep you off your feet.” He responds, eliciting a squeal as he takes her hand and spins her under his arm.

“In more ways than one, Mr Queen.” Felicity smirks appreciatively when she’s back the right way around.

“Alright, we really do need to go.” Oliver sighs, looking at his watch and Felicity grins, dusting a piece of lint from his shoulder.

“As long as you promise to let me take that suit off you later tonight.”

“We have a deal if you let me take that dress off.”

“Any other terms?” Felicity chuckles as he opens up the door and holds it for her.

“Love me forever?” He poses, leaning in for a kiss as she passes him and Felicity laughs as they pull away.

“Well that one’s a given.” She winks over her shoulder, waiting for him to catch up as the door shuts behind them both.


End file.
